


Silence of the Sound

by Vampiric_Charms



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-10 17:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3297902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a faraway disaster, Tenzin agrees to come to the aid of an old acquaintance.  What he drags himself and Lin into is much more than he expected, and puts both their lives at risk when an unanticipated conspiracy is exposed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> When I finally feel comfortable enough with a group of characters and their world to write something longer than a short story, I really take my time with it. I've been working on this for a while, and so being able to post the first chapter of a multi-chapter work is truly exciting for me. It won't be terribly long compared to what I may have written for other fandoms in the past, but I do hope you enjoy regardless!
> 
> As for timeline, this is set between seasons 3 and 4 while Korra is recovering/off hiding from the world. Since it is compliant with canon, all the Lin/Tenzin relationship building, if that is what you're here for, is subtle and can pass as either friendship or an actual "thing". Read what you will, friends! No spoilers for any episodes.

The bright afternoon sunlight of early spring shone down across the cobbled streets of Republic City. Tenzin paused in his quick stride and took a deep breath, pulling the fresh, crisp air into his lungs. There was still just a hint of the past winter lingering, coming in at night to nip through the shutters with the wind, but there was no denying warmer weather was quickly coming. It was a relief, truth be told, after the hard frosts and heavy snows. 

He picked up his pace again, patting his chest once to be sure the roll of parchment he had tucked into his robe before leaving City Hall was still secured there. It was, of course, but he knew he would be needing it in just a moment and feeling the bulk of it helped him at least pretend the next few minutes would go smoothly.

The stark shadow of the police headquarters blocked the sun and he raised his head, eyes skimming over the many gleaming windows and quickly finding those of Lin’s office, facing the city proper. He had no idea if she was in there or even free to see him, though he would at least try her here before waiting hours longer to catch her at home. Their friend needed an answer as soon as possible. 

He opened the main door, met immediately by warm air as it swirled past him outside into the chilly day.

“Good afternoon, Master Tenzin!”

He smiled at the greeting, walking over to the front desk and the young man standing there – a new recruit he recognized as Akrosh, just given his badge last year. “Good afternoon,” Tenzin replied, glancing around at the deceptively calm lobby. “I was hoping to have a few minutes with Chief Beifong, is she available?”

“I’m not sure,” Akrosh muttered, looking over the duty roster on his side of the desk. “Let me check, I’ll be right back!”

Tenzin watched him dart past the corner before looking around again. There were a few people milling about, but surprisingly few given the time of day. Perhaps it was a slow week. He sighed, thinking back to the times before Lin was Chief of Police, when he could just walk right by this desk with a wave to go find her himself. He might have been able to continue doing so after her promotion, if things had worked out differently between them. Maybe he still could now, really, he just hadn’t pushed his luck.

“I just phoned her, Master Tenzin, she said you could go right up!” Akrosh said brightly as he returned to the desk and pulled out his chair.

“Thank you,” Tenzin said with an appreciative nod.

The interior of the precinct was much busier than the lobby had appeared to be. Noises erupted from various departments as he passed through the hallways, stepping around officers and detectives alike as they hurried to and fro. So definitely not a slow week after all. He tried to keep himself out of the way as a clerk rushed by with a stack of papers until, finally, he made it to the inner sanctum of desks that surround the double doors of Lin’s office.

The detectives there, some bent over files, some working together, barely glanced up at him as he walked by them to knock on her door.

“What,” Lin’s muffled response came, and he took that as his welcome to enter.

Very slowly, he swung the door open and let himself inside. His gaze focused on her immediately, sitting at her desk surrounded by scrolls and files and stacks of paper as she read over a report, inkpen held between her teeth with one hand. Her narrowed eyes darted up to meet his briefly before dropping back to her paper, already beginning to read again. 

“What do you want?” she asked shortly. “I thought I cancelled dinner tonight.”

“Hello to you, too,” Tenzin said with a chuckle.

“I know I said you could come up, but this really isn’t a good time. We just caught a break that could help us bring down a huge section of the Triads. So,” she said with finality, “if you are only here to chat, you can turn your ass around right now.”

Tenzin pulled out one of the chairs on the other side of her desk and sat down heavily. She glared at him for the intrusion, ready to send another harsh volley of words his way, when he reached into his cloak and drew out the parchment. Her glare moved from him to it, lessening from anger to wary curiosity. Rather than explain what it was or even hand the scroll over to her when she started to reach for it, he asked, “Do you remember Rala?”

“That kid who teased you endlessly in school?” Lin could tell by Tenzin’s expression that she was correct, and she sat back in her chair, lowering the pen from her lips. “What about him?”

“You know he settled a small town in the Earth Kingdom not too far from here, up in the mountains? He’s been living there with his wife for the last thirty years.” He paused, waiting for her to say something, but she just raised an eyebrow. “Well, with where their village is situated in the mountains, they’re still getting a bit of snow. It seems there was an avalanche last week. Three people died, and about twenty more have been temporarily displaced while their homes are reclaimed.”

“So?”

“Right, well.” Tenzin finally handed over the parchment but, curious as she was before, Lin didn’t unroll it. Instead she set him with a firm gaze, wanting to hear it from his mouth. “One of those three people who perished was actually – oh, you know I’m not good at this. It appeared she was dead before the avalanche, due to causes unknown. And, if their healer is to be believed, she was the third person to die in such a way in the last two weeks.”

A tense silence fell as Lin opened the scroll and quickly read through it. Tenzin watched her, starting to get anxious. “Rala wants you to come help him,” she said dryly after a moment as she neared the end. “Is he dense, or does he just not remember how cruel he was to you?”

“Lin -”

“He made you cry, Tenzin!” she said, a sharp edge lining her voice. “More times than I can count! He was _awful_ to you when we were children!” She crushed the parchment between her hands. He lurched forward, almost attempting to stop her, but she threw the ball of paper into the fire grate in the corner, turning to look at him with a startlingly pained expression on her face. “After everything he put you through as a boy, are you seriously considering going out there to help him like this?”

He could feel his neck turning scarlet. The memories still hurt, and the fact that she remembered them just as intensely made his chest ache. “I don’t know that I have a choice. People are dying.”

She didn’t have a response. She looked away from him, back down to her desktop – still organized despite the incredible mass of documents – and turned her lips down in a deep frown, losing herself momentarily in her own memories. Through the haze, the one thing she saw clearly was Tenzin, eight years old and sobbing against her. She also vividly recalled punching Rala squarely in the face by the time they were twelve for one nasty stunt that left Tenzin with a broken ankle.

“Will you come with me?” he asked abruptly.

Lin met his wide eyes, and suddenly his visit here in her office made sense. Her shoulders slumped, torn between her desire to continue protecting him and needing to stay right where she was, working with her officers on their case. “Tenzin…” She began to shake her head slowly, the movement halfhearted and sad. “You know I can’t. The Triads…my job…I _can’t_.” 

“Please, Lin?” he whispered, leaning forward to rest his hand, palm upward, on her desktop. “We would only be gone two days, three at the most. All he’s asking for is assistance in finding the cause, and I need your help to do that.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, she raised her hand from where it was resting on her thigh and covered his, squeezing his fingers tightly. “Fine.”

They both let it go unsaid that the help he was seeking from her in this instance, aside from her professional opinion, was her strength to face his childhood bully again. He smiled at her, resisting the urge to kiss her knuckles with gratitude as he would have many years ago. As if sensing it, she slipped her hand away. “Thank you.”

She pursed her lips into a thin line, considering what she had just agreed to. “Don’t get me killed,” she muttered. “Or maimed. Or injured in any way, shape, or form. Got it? That’s not what I’m signing up for. All I’m after is a nice trip to the mountains to take a look at few bits of evidence to piece together for someone else’s benefit.”

“Absolutely.” He grinned kindly, starting to get to his feet. “I’ll go reply to his letter now – I _do_ wish I still had it, by the way, thank you _so much_ , Lin, for burning the thing – and I’ll let you know as soon as he tells me when to depart.” 

She just scowled at his back as he left. 


	2. Chapter 2

“I still think this is a very bad idea,” Lin muttered, handing her rucksack up to Tenzin so he could secure it to Oogi’s saddle. She squinted against the late morning sun.

Tenzin just sighed, far too used to her ribbing over the last four days to pay it any more mind now. They had received a response to his letter the previous day urging them to come as soon as they could. Though Lin had not rescinded her agreement to join him, she had nevertheless tried to talk him out of going at all at every turn. It was getting aggravating. 

“I know you do,” he said to show her he was listening, however divided the attention may be.

She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes, staring up at him on his bison’s back. “And I’m still not clear on why you’re refusing to send one of your precious new Airbenders in your place. They’d be able to handle this just fine.”

“Yes, I know.” He didn’t look at her, sure if he did he would only see disappointment written on her face. To expound on the one point he could, though, he continued evenly with, “I’m not sending anyone else in the rare event this turns dangerous. I don’t think they’ve gained enough experience yet.”

“But you’re fine sending the two of us into nameless peril. Right, I see.” She scoffed, turning away from him.

“Lin, that is not -”

“Here you go!” Pema came striding out into the courtyard, two large baskets tucked under her arms. She grinned at them both, fully aware she was interrupting a tiff and pleased to be doing so. “I’ve packed enough food to last you a few days, if needed. And if eaten sparingly, though since Meelo is not going with you that should not be an issue.”

Lin reached out to take one of the proffered baskets, returning the younger woman’s kind smile. “Thank you, Pema. Hopefully the place we’re going is civilized enough to feed and water us, but -”

“Lin!” Tenzin scolded sourly, even knowing the remark was aimed at Rala rather than his wife.

“- we appreciate it regardless,” she finished without giving her friend any notice.

Pema glanced between them as Lin hefted one basket, then the other up into the saddle before climbing up herself. “Be careful,” she entreated. She and Tenzin had said their goodbyes earlier that morning, and she raised her hand in a final farewell. She resisted the sudden urge to tell them not to fight like she did so many times in a day with the children, but she held it back and said instead, “I’ll see you two soon!” 

Lin gave her a small salute, sprawling backward when Tenzin gave Oogi the command to take off without checking to see if she was settled. “I can see this is going to be a fun trip…”

xXx

They had been traveling for two hours in silence when Tenzin released Oogi’s reins, confident the sky bison was comfortable enough to continue without guidance on their northeast trek, and climbed back into the saddle with Lin. She had found a spot against the side, leaning there to gaze down at the land passing quickly beneath them. Tenzin sat beside her and cleared his throat, unsure of how to start.

“So,” he began. She glanced at him, her face closed off as her hair whipped around it with the wind. “Did you get everything settled at work, then?”

Lin looked away in annoyance. “Yes.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

“Look,” she said, her voice showing how badly she hurt even if her expression hadn’t changed. “I still do not agree that this is the best plan. Not because people do not need help – it is true, they do. But because I do not trust Rala at all.” 

She turned her gaze up to meet his, and she could see the anxiety under his cool exterior without having to search for it. “We knew a handful of bullies in school. All of them grew out of it by the time we were through our teens. All, except him. There is something not right about Rala, we both know it. He’s _cruel_. For what information we have so far about this, he could be the one killing these people, Tenzin, and using it as a reason to lure you out there. That man has always wanted to harm you, either emotionally or physically. The last few decades won’t have changed anything.”

Tenzin reached out and took her hand from here it was resting in her lap, bringing it to his chest to hold there. “And that, Lin,” he said as quietly as he could over the wind, “is why I am so glad you are coming with me.”

“I promise I won’t argue about this again. Or at least, I promise to try.” She let out a long breath, not pulling her hand away until he released it. “I’m just worried about you, that’s why I was trying to convince you not to go. It’s too late now, anyway. When will we be arriving, do you think?” she asked, putting a solid end to the conversation. 

He paused for a moment, mulling over her words and briefly considering saying something else on the topic before wisely deciding not to. “Probably another hour or so. I have a map in my bag if you’d like to take a look.”

“No, it’s all right. I just don’t like these long flights, my legs start to get tense.” She gave him a lopsided grin and stretched her legs out in front of her, hooking one ankle over the other. “My body doesn’t appreciate being stuck immobile for so long, especially so high up. Us Earthbenders, right? My mother hated flying, too, so at least I know it’s not just me.”

Tenzin chuckled, leaning back against the rigid railing of the saddle and finally starting to relax a bit. “You’ve always hated flying, as far as I can tell. You were remarkably difficult when my father wanted to take us all on vacations. Between you and Aunt Toph you made him absolutely miserable the entire time.”

“Oh, please! He was not miserable, _you_ were!” Lin started to laugh. She shook her head and looked back over her shoulder, down toward the earth far below. “Remember that one trip to Ember Island to meet Zuko, when we were five or six? On our way there Bumi got so mad at me, he almost pushed me right off Aapa’s back out of the sky. I grabbed you when I tripped so we both went tumbling. The only reason we didn’t fall was because your mother grabbed me by the britches.”

“That was terrifying,” he agreed with a smile at the memory.

“I’m pretty sure you threw up on me during that same flight. We still couldn’t stay apart, though,” Lin mused. “Connected at the hip since birth, until –” She cut herself off quickly and turned to keep her gaze away from his. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“You were still my best friend. From that very first day.”

She rolled her eyes, trying very hard not to hear the sincerity in what he had said. “I highly doubt you remember the first day you met me, Tenzin. You were _one_.”

“Perhaps not,” he conceded, “but I still understood how important you were from a very young age. You can’t argue with that, because you felt it for me, too. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been as close as we were. Still are, hopefully.”

“Yes, well.”

That was all she said on the matter, feeling an ache growing around her heart. She pulled her legs back up toward her chest, but changed her mind and lowered one back down. If they kept talking about this, she was worried she would go down the path of opening herself to him again, the way she had when they had a true relationship, and that was not something she was willing to risk. 

The ten years they had been apart were long and painful for her without her closest friend – and for him, she had come to realize over the last three they had started talking again, even if he didn’t discuss it often. Having him back in her life had taken a bit of getting used to, like going back to how it had been between them before any romantic feelings had evolved. Only this time…it felt like something was missing, and she was afraid of finding that piece. Perhaps because they both knew what it was like to truly let their souls be together, and not allowing that to occur felt like holding back each and every time they were around one another. No, they didn’t have to be romantically involved for that to happen, but she was still wary regardless.

“Lin, are you okay?”

She looked over at him, realizing her quick silence had given exactly the message she was trying to avoid. “Oh, yes. Just uncomfortable. My legs, I mean,” she added, stretching the other down once more for emphasis.

“You can close your eyes for a while, if you want,” Tenzin suggested when he realized she was done talking to him about anything vaguely personal. The thought made him sad and, rather than push her when they had finally reached a truce about this dubious adventure they were undertaking – not to mention the way she had spoken to him like her friend instead of an acquaintance, which he had missed something terrible – he carefully scooted toward the front of the saddle. “I can wake you when we’re nearly there.”

“It’s fine, I enjoy watching the sights even if I don’t enjoy flying.” She gave him a small smile when he hesitated. “Go back to guiding Oogi, I’m all right here alone.”

He nodded once before leaving her to her thoughts.

xXx

Two more hours passed, the silence broken here and there by small bits of conversation as time wore on. Not long after they stopped for a quick break and late lunch, Tenzin turned his bison downward.

“There it is,” he called back to Lin, who leaned forward a bit to peer down at the small town they were approaching.

“It’s not much, is it?” she observed, moving to the front of the saddle so she and Tenzin wouldn’t have to yell at one another. The buildings were short and packed together. The town’s square became an obvious fixture as they got closer, and what appeared to be a minute city hall – at least, in comparison to the one in Republic City – was surrounded by tiny stores, which gave way to an inn and homes. Further up the north-heading streets, they could see were the avalanche had destroyed a fair number of houses. With it all brought to scale, it was actually a wonder no more than two people had died in the disaster.

A few villagers came out into the roads to watch as Oogi found a safe place to land, though most held back quite a bit. Lin regarded them as guardedly as they did her when she slid down off the bison’s back beside Tenzin, their belongings still in the saddle until they knew where to unpack.

“Councilman!”

They turned, not surprised to see Rala, older than they had last seen him even if his features were much the same. His once brown hair had grayed and was cut short, but his blue eyes were just as sharp as they had been in his youth. The townsfolk parted as he walked through them, a wide smile plastered on his face to show his white teeth. People watched as he came forward and held out a hand.

“I am so pleased you were able to come to our aid,” he said, taking Tenzin’s hand in his and not sparing a glance for Lin. “Please, come right over here. We have a room all prepared with our innkeeper. You are welcome to get settled before you meet with the healer. Would you like anything to eat?”

“No, thank you,” Lin cut in, shouldering her way between the two men to break the vice-like handshake as she stalked toward the inn. “Just show us these rooms so we can get this thing moving.” 

An older man came rushing over to usher them in, opening the large wooden door. Rala inclined his head and stood back. “As you wish. I will be available to you when you’re ready.”

“This isn’t too bad so far,” Tenzin leaned down to whisper in Lin’s ear once Rala had disappeared into the crowd of people again.

She just scoffed and curled her lip. “He’s a spider wasp, you know it as well as I do.”

The old man, who turned out to be the innkeeper, gestured for them to follow him to the desk near the far wall. The main floor of the inn was small and dimly lit, with few windows to let in natural light, but it was cozy in a nice sort of way. Even though this place surely didn’t get many visitors, it wasn’t a bad town to stop by for a night. At least, the inn didn’t appear to be.

“My name is Chel,” the man said, giving them a smile as he dug around behind the desk for something. “My wife, Kaalya, helps me run the place, but I’ll be damned if I ever remember where she puts our log book – oh, here it is!” He pulled a hefty book up out of a drawer and flipped it open. “So, Rala put your name down just the other day. Right, here we are. Masters Tenzin and Beifong, your room is all prepared!” 

Lin blinked at the single key he held out to them, pausing for a moment before slowly pushing it back into his hand. “Only one room?”

“Well, yes. Is that not correct?” Chel ran his finger down the log again, finding their entry and reading over it. “Rala said you two were married and only needed a single room, so I gave the second one away.” His eyes were wide when he looked between them both with slight panic. “We only have the one room left, many of the people whose homes were destroyed are staying here with us.”

Lin opened her mouth to respond, but Tenzin touched her shoulder to stall her response and spoke instead. “Is there perhaps a cot we could borrow for the room you’ve found for us?” he asked far more calmly than she would have. He heard her take a deep breath beside him, keeping her temper in check.

Chel nodded quickly and handed him the key. A number three was engraved on the head. “Yes, of course. I’ll ask someone to retrieve it for you right now. I apologize for the misunderstanding!”

“Misunderstanding my _ass_ ,” Lin growled as soon as he ran off toward a back hallway. “Everyone in the world knows you married Pema, it was a global affair involving all four nations. Rala probably set this up as soon as you told him I was coming with you.”

“Or,” Tenzin said softly, “it really was a misunderstanding.”

“Bison shit. You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“Let’s just bring our things inside,” he muttered. His evasion was all the answer she needed, and she scowled angrily as she followed him back outside into the chilly air to help gather their bags.

“Can we just go find the healer so I can look at the bodies?” She slung her bag and Tenzin’s over her shoulder while he retrieved the baskets of food to bring inside. “I’d rather keep all interactions with our old _friend_ to a minimum and get this over with as soon as possible.”

“Yes, I certainly agree with that.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Here she is,” the healer said softly, pulling back a pale blue sheet to uncover the victim found not to have died in the avalanche. “Her name is Zulani. She has only been living in our town for about six months, came from another small village far east of here. None of us knew her very well. She was found in her home, buried under the snow.”

Tenzin stood back as Lin went toward the table where her body had been preserved in the makeshift morgue, a room lined with walls of bended ice. “Did you find anything suspicious in your examination?” she asked, looking over the middle-aged woman with trained eyes before touching anything herself.

The healer, a young, enthusiastic woman who had introduced herself as Eri, shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh. “No,” she explained without looking at the scrolls with her notes. “But that, to me was more suspicious than anything else. There was absolutely nothing to explain why this poor soul died. Everything about her body was in perfect condition, her heart, her lungs, stomach, everything. It almost appears as if they just…stopped functioning.”

“Are these the other two?” Lin glanced at the two tables lined up behind Eri, who nodded. Lin walked over and uncovered them both to see all three side by side. Not a single body had a mark to be seen. It was a bit bizarre, if she were honest. “Where were they found?”

“In their homes, as well.”

Done with the initial assessment, she returned to Zulani and started by reaching out to touch the dead woman’s face with the intention of moving her head side to side, hoping to perhaps find something of interest. As soon as her fingers made contact with the waxy skin, however, she jerked her hand back as though something had bitten her.

She gasped in surprise, ignoring Tenzin’s questioning look and holding up her hand to stop him before he could speak. Without pausing, she moved quickly to the other two, pressing her fingers first to one man’s cheek, then the other’s. The same startling sensation tickled her skin both times, and she withdrew her hand, finally raising her head. 

“Are – _were_ – these people Earthbenders?”

Eri appeared taken aback by the question. “No, I don’t believe so,” she answered honestly, an expression of bewilderment on her face. “At least, I know Tarnon and Tarrak weren’t. They’re brothers, their family came from the North Pole about fifteen years ago. I’m pretty sure Zulani was not a bender, either.” She lowered her gaze, sucking on her lip as she thought for a moment. “There’s only one Earthbender in our town, as far as I know. A little boy.”

“Why, Lin?” Tenzin asked, his eyebrows coming together in concern.

Lin glanced at him and away, confused herself. “I…well, I can feel earth. Inside their bodies.” 

She let out a heavy breath and gently touched Zulani’s shoulder, letting her hand linger this time. There was a very faint throbbing coming from somewhere near where her heart should have been pumping, but instead it seemed foreign, as if it did not belong there. It felt like a very old piece of stone, pulled up from deep in the earth. She had never felt anything similar in a living person before, not even an Earthbender. Not even her _mother_ , whose entire existence was Earthbending and earth in some shape or form.

She slid into a familiar form and beckoned with her hands. Nothing happened. She tried again, putting the full force of her will behind the movement of her arms. Once again, though, nothing stirred from inside the woman’s body. It almost felt as dead as Zulani was, and even if Lin could still sense it there she wouldn’t be able to bring it back to life.

“Oh!” Eri nearly dropped the pen in her hand with her excited outburst. Lin and Tenzin looked at her, startled. “Oh, goodness, I can’t believe I forgot! There’s another Earthbender nearby! Well,” she added, composing herself despite the light blush creeping up her cheeks. “I suppose he’s not exactly nearby, but he comes into town every two weeks or so to pick up food and parchment and things. Sometimes he leaves mail to be sent off.”

Tenzin touched her arm. “How far away is he, exactly?”

“About halfway around the mountain, maybe half a day’s ride by ostrich horse.” She bit her lip before remembering, “His name is Weyoun. He lived out here before Rala started building the town. He’s a bit…odd. My mother told me he was spirit-touched as a child after a cave collapsed in on him. But he always seemed nice enough when he came by for supplies. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, I hope he wasn’t hurt during the avalanche.”

xXx

“This is idiocy, Tenzin. You realize that, don’t you? That you are doing something very, _very_ stupid?”

Lin crossed her arms tightly across her abdomen, watching stiffly as he checked over Oogi’s saddle one last time. They were standing outside the small healer’s clinic that was trying – and failing – to pass as a hospital. Eri was inside gathering patients with the worst injuries with her mother, readying them for travel.

“They need to be taken to a real hospital,” Tenzin said shortly. “Oogi can take them all to Republic City, and then Eri can bring him back with more medical supplies to help her here. It’s the right thing to do. They’ll be back by tomorrow night.”

Lin didn’t respond, knowing if she did she would say something she would regret as soon as it came out of her mouth. She did not like seeing their only – or at least, most reliable – method of travel leaving without them. It made her extremely uncomfortable.

Eri broke the silence moments later when she came hobbling out of the clinic supporting a man who could hardly walk. Her mother was behind her with two additional people. Lin and Tenzin rushed forward to assist as three more, parents with a severely wounded child, limped out into the cold evening. Lin quickly lifted a ramp from the earth so those who were able could climb onto Oogi’s back before taking bags of personal belonging to hand up behind them.

“Thank you again, so much,” Eri said, the relief in her face clear as she gazed up at Tenzin once everyone had been settled. “I don’t know how I would have handled this without your help. I’m the only healer here and it’s just…so far beyond me.”

He smiled gently. “The healers in Republic City will take you right in, don’t worry. Your patients will be good as new in just a few days.” He patted her shoulder supportively, like he would his daughter. “Oogi knows the way home, and he can bring you back here tomorrow with your mother. Just speak to my wife once you land, she’ll watch after you.”

She nodded once, quickly, before letting him lift her up onto the bison’s head. 

All Lin could do was continue watching in silence as Oogi took off, heading to Republic City without them. She swallowed back the sudden surge of dread that welled up in her chest when the wind from his tail hit her, and she took a step back, not able to meet Tenzin’s eyes when he turned to look at her.

“Let’s go inside out of the cold, shall we?”

He held out his hand in an open gesture toward the street that led to the inn. It was also meant to be a gesture of goodwill and an unspoken apology, and she followed him without a word, already forgiving him for his generosity if not for his unintended stupidity. He moved his hand to place on the small of her back when she came close enough, intending to pass him.

Lin remained silent as she subtly quickened her pace so his hand would fall away again.

xXx

It was nearly two hours later when they had finally found a chance to speak alone in their single – still much to Lin’s displeasure – room over a simple meal of fresh cheeses and warm bread. The sun had started to set on their first day in this diminutive town so far from home not long before, and they were sitting at a round table pushed up against the only window in the room as they ate. Lights were dotting other windows down the back lane they faced, but otherwise darkness was falling steadily, bringing with it the damp, rigid chill of the cold mountain night. Snow-heavy clouds hung in the sky, blocking the moon.

“What do you think it was, then?” Tenzin asked, trying to bring Lin’s attention away from the movement outside as a woman put out her goat dog.

She slowly brought her gaze around, lowering the piece of bread in her hand back to the plate on the table. Her appetite was waning the longer she thought about the odd sensation she found in the bodies in the morgue and she no longer felt like eating. “I’m not entirely sure,” she muttered softly, leaning back in her chair and looking outside again. “It was definitely the same in each of them, though. Like it came from the same…the same _being_. It seemed as if it were alive at one point and died when they did.”

“Was this being what ended up taking their lives?” Tenzin pushed a bit more when she stopped talking.

Lin just shrugged, not quite willing to dwell on it very hard. For some reason the whole incident was making her very uncomfortable. It was unnatural, that much was certain, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow this one through to the end.

“This Weyoun,” he hedged, guiding the subject down a different path when he saw how stiffly Lin was sitting across from him. “We should go speak with him tomorrow, do you agree?”

“I suppose we should,” she conceded grudgingly.

“At least we can take Rala off the list of suspects now, right?” Tenzin said with a false cheeriness.

“Of course not,” Lin snapped, the long day making her much more aggravated than she would have liked. She sucked in a quick breath of air and let it out through her nose before continuing. “Leave the detective work to the detective, all right, Airhead? I’m still considering everyone, especially that -” 

A sharp knock interrupted her growing tirade and she frowned, getting to her feet before Tenzin could to answer the door. He stood a few steps behind her anyway, coming to the center of the room by the time she swung the door open.

Rala’s calm face greeted them in the doorway, and he clasped his hands loosely to give them both a small bow. “Good evening,” he began as he rose, his voice smooth. “You didn’t come find me earlier, and I wanted to see how things were progressing. Have you made any headway?”

Lin clenched her jaw tightly and let it go again, expertly releasing the emotion from her stance so as not give him anything to use against her. “Some, yes.”

“May I?” he asked, making a short gesture and striding past her into the room without waiting for answer or invitation. “You have quite a bodyguard here, Tenzin,” he said to the other man with a grin, focusing solely on him. “She certainly hasn’t changed much in that regard, and neither have you if you still need to bring her everywhere with you. Connected at the hip as always?”

Tenzin caught Lin’s angry glance, and they both silently agreed not to rise to his thinly veiled taunt. “Chief Beifong is here to help, just as I am,” he replied instead.

“Ah, yes. _Chief_. I thought I heard something over the radio about that a few years back.” He turned to find Lin again, who had covered her face in a hard mask he couldn’t see her irritation through. “Like mother, like daughter. Of course, there was always speculation you were only promoted because of her. Talent can run thin through family lines, don’t you think?”

“Was there something you wanted, Rala?” Lin asked tonelessly, one eyebrow quirking briefly.

He seemed to lose a small fraction of his bluster when neither of them reacted the way he expected them to, the way they had as children, but he smiled regardless. “Aside from finding out if you have come across anything that could help the people under my protection here?” He opened his arms in what appeared to be a sign of benevolence when Lin didn’t reply. “Very well, I can tell when my presence is unwelcome. Please, go back to whatever it is you were doing before I interrupted. I do hope you enjoy the room, by the way.”

He gave them another, lower bow, before backing out and closing the door.

Lin and Tenzin looked at one another in silence, waiting a minute more to be sure he was truly gone. Neither broached the subject of what had just taken place.

“The real bed is _mine_ ,” Lin said suddenly, rushing toward it and peeling off her armor, dirty from a day’s work, to drop face-down onto the mattress the way she would have in her younger years.

It took a second for her words and actions to sink in, but when they did all Tenzin could do was laugh. He was so glad, in that moment, that she was there with him. Protector, bodyguard, friend, it didn’t matter so long as she was there at all. Sometimes it felt as though she were a thread holding his sanity together through the confusion pulling in all directions, and she was certainly needed now. “Fine, fine. Only if we switch tomorrow night. I can’t sleep on a cot two nights in a row.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.”


	4. Chapter 4

It had indeed snowed during the night. A light dusting coated the ground as Lin and Tenzin guided two ostrich horses down a side road toward a path that cut through the mountain forest. A farmer was kind enough to lend them their use – after being paid a sufficient amount from the Beifong purse for both the animals and a request to keep their short journey quiet.

Lin pulled her brown jacket tight across her shoulders before putting one foot in the stirrup and hefting herself up into the ostrich horse’s worn leather saddle. “So the only direction we have is eastward around the mountain,” she said, trying to sound a bit more lighthearted than she felt.

“Correct,” Tenzin confirmed, settling on his mount as well and urging the animal to come even with Lin’s. “From the sparse information I was able to get from Eri, we’ll follow this path until it ends and then just keep going east. Another smaller trail should branch from there, leading right to this man’s house. Eri’s mother told me he’s lived there for eighty years, so the way should be pretty well traveled.”

“We can hope, anyway. If all else fails, I’ll just search him out with my feet.”

Tenzin pursed his lips, starting to lead the way forward. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, shall we? It’s cold enough to get frostbite.”

“Do you really think it will take us most of the day to get out there?” Lin asked with a frown, urging her ostrich horse onward to catch up with his when the animal stopped to poke around a bush at beetles slowed by the cold.

“It’s a lot of ground to cover, so unfortunately yes.”

“If only we had Oogi…”

“Don’t start with that again,” Tenzin warned, already weary of this trip as a whole and mildly regretting the decision to send Oogi away himself. “We’ll be just fine with what we have.”

Thankfully, the paths to follow were clearly cut through the trees. Clouds hung low in the sky as they traveled, hiding the sun behind their thick cover. Lin and Tenzin lapsed into silence under the bare trees, though it seemed apt for the quiet around them; even the animals grew more and more hushed the further they journeyed from the town. Eventually, after several hours just after an early dusk began to fall and a light flurry of snow flitted down from the sky, their current path started to widen into what appeared to be one that led somewhere well-used.

Lin led the way, slowing to a polite trot toward the light they could see ahead. A house rose before them on a small slope, large and old fashioned in its architecture. The structure was painted a delicate shade of green and, now faded with time, it still blended nicely with the surrounding forest. The shutters were latched against the cold, but the gate out front, still several yards away, was open and fire lamps were burning inside on the first floor. Smoke rose from one of the two chimneys.

“Let’s go the rest of the way on foot,” Tenzin suggested, slowing his ostrich horse to a halt and sliding from his back without waiting for Lin’s response.

She paused a moment before following his actions, finding a low hanging branch to tie the mount’s bridle to while they went inside. Hers immediately started sniffing at the ground, once again looking for insects to startle into view. “I hope he has food,” she muttered under her breath, “that lunch we had was pitiful.”

She brushed fresh snow from her hair, trailing a few steps behind as Tenzin walked through the ordinary wooden gate in the middle of the low fence around the house. She stopped behind him on the stone stoop to let him knock, looking back over her shoulder in uncertainty. An odd sense had fallen over her once they crossed through that gate, as if something were watching them. She raised her eyes to the empty windows, though nothing was there staring back. She hadn’t necessarily expected there to be, even if she felt something amiss close by.

Shifting uncomfortably, she took a breath and reached out with her senses.

“No one is in the house, Tenzin,” she whispered, suddenly not wanting to speak as loudly as they had been before.

“But there’s a light inside, just there,” he started to argue, moving to peer into one of the windows near the door. There were definitely lamps lit in the room he saw, a sitting room with plush furnishings. A fire was even lit in the large grate, giving body to the smoke pouring from the chimney. “Look, his book and tea are right on the table. He has to be here somewhere.”

“He’s _not_ ,” Lin insisted. She took a step backward, her foot hitting the solid dirt again as it left the front stoop. The uneasiness was beginning to feel heavy in her limbs, and she wrapped her arms around her abdomen in a useless attempt to feel protected against the unknown. “Let’s go. Please, let’s just leave.”

Tenzin, however, did not seem to notice her anxiety and would not be deterred. “What if he’s injured, or needs help?” he asked without sparing a glance in her direction. He depressed the iron door handle, which gave easily for the door to open into the house. “The door is unlocked. Come on, Lin, we should check.”

Against her better judgment, she took the few hesitating steps to follow him inside before he could disappear from her view.

The house was warm, the heat a comfortable change to the cold outside. Few other lights were lit, though they could see a vast staircase sweeping to the open second landing above. It was dark upstairs, a chilled breeze speaking of emptiness wafting from the rooms there before being eaten by the lived-in warmth of the rooms below. Tenzin walked slowly through the entryway – one that must have once been opulent with its finery – toward the sitting area to the left.

The space was, indeed, empty. 

Weyoun was not inside, though he had been recently. The cup of tea on the table by a well used chair closest to the fire was still steaming cheerily, waiting for him to return. The room itself was filled with dark woods and smooth stone, a lovely space that must have seen much over the years.

What caught Lin’s eye as Tenzin picked up the book the mysterious man had been reading, however, was a sphere of green and pink marble on the mantle. It was a decent size, small enough to cup in one’s hands, but, rather than go toward it, she moved away. The marble was pulsing, aching, as if it were alive – more alive than a single piece of earth should be.

As if feeling her gaze on it, the marble shifted. But then, it wasn’t the actual stone that changed. No – the _surface_ of it was moving, a swirl of brown along the strains of green that hadn’t been there seconds ago. Lin looked quickly to Tenzin, hoping he had noticed this, too, but he wasn’t paying attention to what she was. This was earth of some kind, a type she had never seen before.

Suddenly, a fragment of the marble, a tiny sliver of the moving surface, defected from the whole and flew toward her.

Lin jerked backward and held her hand up in front of her face in surprise, hoping to protect herself from whatever this strangeness was. It was hot when the substance met her flesh, burning its way under her skin. She tried to gasp through the shock, but her lungs deflated too quickly when the substance seared inside her and not a sound escaped.

_Lost!_

It was in her mind, a voice so quiet yet so loud it almost consumed her thoughts.

_Run! You are lost, you must run! Save me! Danger is here, now!_

Lin grabbed Tenzin’s wrist and ran, tugging him around so quickly he nearly tripped. She slammed the front door open with a chunk of stone from the foyer, completely unaware of what she was doing and of Tenzin behind her exclaiming rudeness. Blind into the dark moonless night, her skin burning and her heart pounding so quickly it almost hurt, she instinctively exposed the soles of her feet and took off into the deep woods. Even panting for breath was becoming painful, and fear was starting to cloud through her mind.

“Lin – the ostrich horses -” 

Tenzin stumbled over a rock in the dark, momentarily panicking as her hand lost his wrist. He couldn’t see her ahead of him, but he reached out and found her arm, clinging to it desperately as she pulled him along at her tortuously fast pace. 

Branches whipped against them, brush and scrub ripping at his robes and her coat. She didn’t slow down, using her seismic sense to guide them through the forest uphill and as far away from that home as she could. She could vaguely hear Tenzin calling her name, asking her what was wrong, but she couldn’t make out the words or his voice. _This is how they died,_ was all she could think through the chaos in her mind. _This is how they died…_

Heat was pooling under her skin, trying frantically to escape again, to find its way back to where it had been. _Let me go!_ it cried in words she felt more than heard, tearing through her with so much agony she doubled over. 

Tenzin immediately halted and touched her back, concerned, but she smacked his hand away with force not her own, already starting to run again and not caring any longer if he was following or not. The inhuman distress was growing at an alarming rate, to the point where she could feel herself – her very soul – being pushed aside.

_Save me! Let me go!_

Tenzin found the back of her coat and latched to it. The small part of herself still aware was relieved he hadn’t been lost and, while she could still focus, she forced herself to remember that it was earth, _earth_ , inside her, she had to bend it, force it to leave, to listen, to _stop_. But it, whatever _it_ was, was purely untamable, and she could feel her strength waning quickly the harder she tried. 

A cliff wall opened before them. Tenzin almost ran face-first into it, unable to see even the giant face of rock, though Lin stopped short, using what she had left to create a small cave there and shove him inside. She instantly rose the mouth closed to make sure no one would notice from the outside, leaving just a small crevice for air to flow freely through.

“Lin…” Tenzin bent over his knees, trying to catch his breath in the pitch blackness. “What in the _world_ was that about?”

Still, she didn’t answer, too intent on ripping off her coat and tossing it aside. Her skin felt as if someone had set it aflame and, unlike Tenzin’s, her lungs and heart were not slowing down. She could only pant uselessly, dizzily falling to her knees as she unlatched her armor as well.

He looked up as though he would be able to see her when he heard the clang of metal against the stone floor of their created cave, utterly baffled. “What – what’s going on? Are you all right?”

“I-I can’t – I’m suffocating…” was all she could get out, speaking for the first time. 

Her words were weak, and Tenzin shuffled forward to the sound of her voice, growing concerned in a far different manner than he had been while they were fleeing. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t breathe, Tenzin…” she gasped around her short breaths, slumping down onto the ground. “I…felt something…it came in through my – my skin. What killed those…other people. It’s…inside me, _suffocating_ me.”

“What? No, no you must be mistaken.” Fully alarmed now, he fell to his hands and knees to shuffle across the small space until he found her. His searching fingers met her calf and he ran his hand up her leg, startled to find she was chest-down on the floor, arms pinned under her body. “Lin?” 

She didn’t reply, not even with a gesture or groan to let him know she had heard. Alarm turned to searing fear, and his hand ghosted up her back to find her neck. Shifting hair away, he pressed two fingers to clammy skin, hoping desperately to find her heart still beating.

It was, very quickly. Far more quickly than it should be, though she was thankfully still alive.

“Lin,” Tenzin whispered, at a complete loss of what to do next. He left his hand against her shoulder, bare to the cold except for her thin-strapped shirt, and quickly went through options.

Technically speaking, he would be able to break through the mouth of the cave with the right type of air current. He and Lin had practiced that very thing when they were younger. Maybe not necessarily for a situation like this, though those lessons together had come in handy more than once. But, even if he could get her out of here, he wouldn’t be able to get her to help. There were no healers back in town, and on top of that it was freezing outside. At least in here they were protected from the elements. 

Decided for the moment, Tenzin slowly moved around her so he could lean against the wall of the cave before lifting her upper body up against him, her back against his chest. She was thoroughly unconscious, her weight limp in his arms and making the effort difficult. 

“Come on, Lin,” he murmured even knowing she wouldn’t respond.

Once he got himself situated, he shifted her into his lap so her head would hit his shoulder rather than slump forward. He had no idea where her jacket had been slung to so, hoping to keep her warm enough, he tugged his heavy cloak around them both, his arms wrapping around her tightly with it, one across her waist and the other up diagonally across her chest to keep her secure against him. 

For how chilly her skin was where it brushed his, she was sweating profusely, and he hoped holding her was the right thing to do. He had no idea if she would struggle later, or seize or stay still, or simply remain unconscious until…this ended, and the thought, the unknown of it all, left him frightened beyond words. More than that, more than _anything_ , he was terrified that when the sun came up, she would be gone and he would be powerless to prevent it.

“I am so sorry.” He turned his head to press his face into her soft hair, closing his eyes to the dark he couldn’t see through and letting tears sting against his eyelids. The spicy scent of clove – the soap she had used for at least thirty years – pierced his senses, made stronger by her perspiration. He inhaled it deeply, a familiar comfort through the turmoil of the situation. “Lin, please hear how sorry I am. Please. I never -” He choked on the words, taking a quick breath and tightening his arms compulsively.

“Would it help if…spirits, Lin, would it help if I told you sometimes I think I made a mistake?” 

He had no idea why he was doing this, spilling his heart to her now. If she _could_ hear him, she would likely call him cowardly, with the knowledge she couldn’t respond to his confession. But he wasn’t able to stop himself. Perhaps it was the fear of losing her completely, or perhaps this was the culmination of the last three years of having her back in his life again, reminding him of everything he had already lost finally tipping him over.

She made no movement against him.

“There is not a day that goes by when I do not think of you,” he continued quietly, the tears leaking down his cheeks a mixture of fear and remorse. “When I don’t remember how happy we were. And sometimes I truly wonder why I threw all of that away, why I didn’t listen to my father when he told me to just be content in my life. Why did I do that, Lin? Why was I so scared then?” He stopped speaking when a muted sob made his lungs spasm, and he took a moment to gather his thoughts back to himself.

“You have the other half of my soul, you always have. I will spend the rest of my life regretting losing you the way I did.” Stifling silence fell as he lowered his head to her shoulder, letting his lips press against the skin there and aching at how clammy it was over the hard muscle. “Please don’t leave me now, Lin, please.” 

As before, she was still and soundless, a battle for dominance over her body happening far from anywhere he could ever try help. 

Instead of allowing himself to dwell on that, he continued speaking. He grasped onto anything he could, anything for her to hold to as she fought – about how he missed listening to her walking in those metal boots when she got home from work, how he could read her mood from her stride; how he missed the feeling of her body, so strong and reassuring, beside his as he slept. He recalled their first kiss, their first night together, the first day they spent in their apartment in the city. He told her how much he enjoyed their late-night dinners over the last few years, how they had come to mean so much to him. 

He knew, beyond anything else, that his life would be irrevocably shattered if she died here. But somehow, he couldn’t find the words to say so.


	5. Chapter 5

A thin beam of sunlight was just starting to break through the crevice in the rock when Lin jerked awake several hours later.

Tenzin, who had barely been able to doze on and off near dawn, felt her struggle against him and he immediately dropped his arms so she could lurch forward. He opened his mouth to speak to her, to try to get some bearing on what was happening through the overwhelming elation at seeing her conscious, but before he could get the words from his mouth, she had stumbled to her feet to break open the front of the cave. Cold morning air rushed inside and bright sunlight momentarily blinded him as he rushed to follow her. 

Lin fell back to her knees the moment she met the fresh space outside, not pausing to look around her before leaning forward to vomit. There was very little in her body to eject, and the retches quickly turned to dry heaves as her stomach and lungs competed against one another for normalcy.

Tenzin was at her side in an instant, his hand reaching out to stroke her back.

But, once again before he could check after her wellbeing, she pointed weakly behind her. “Knife,” she muttered hoarsely, snapping her fingers at him to _hurry_ , damn it.

The burning under her skin was churning, swirling as if wanting to pace restlessly, and somehow she understood in a way she hadn’t the night before that _release_ was exactly what it wanted. Perhaps their elemental bond had at least given them enough connection for her to understand that much. She curled her arms around her waist and leaned all the way down against her thighs, pained and shaking.

Tenzin returned a moment later with one of her metal gauntlets, where a blade was attached to the inside. Not giving him a chance to intervene, she pulled the blade out and quickly ran the sharp steel across the palm of her opposite hand to open a neat little slice through her skin.

“Lin!” Tenzin balked, snatching the knife and holding to it tightly on the chance she tried to use her bending to get it back. For all he knew, she could have been attempting to harm herself or some other nefarious deed under the influence of…of whatever was hurting her. “What is going _on_ , Lin? Talk to me!”

Still, though, she did not respond. Instead, she held up her uninjured fingers and beckoned. Blood pooled in her upturned palm but then, when she pulled on the earth inside her again, something else came weeping from the wound. She turned her hand over, still pushing with her energy. Whatever this was, was unable to leave on its own despite how badly it wanted to.

Dark brown and oily, drops of it mixed with her blood and fell to the ground.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, lowering her hand slightly when the muscles in her arm started to tire. It felt ancient, this being, and glad to be gone of her as it quickly absorbed into the earth to leave blood behind. She felt it slipping through her body, tugging and pushing in invisible rivulets under her skin as it found the way to escape. Many minutes later, the substance stopped flowing until it was only her blood again. Only _her_ blood inside her body, only her lungs and heart, her mind. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

When she continued to remain silent, Tenzin reached out and delicately took her injured hand to check the wound, putting her knife on the ground. The actual slice appeared clean enough. Lips pursed into an unhappy thin line, he ripped some fabric from the inner lining of his robes, where they hadn’t been dirtied, and tied the scrap around her palm to stop the bleeding. A healer, when they finally got to one, would be able to mend the cut away without even a scar, but this would have to do in the meantime.

“Will you talk to me now?” he asked, unable to stop the irritation from coming through.

“Oh, sure, I almost died because of you dragging me out here – you go right ahead and get snappy with me,” she barked hoarsely, her eyes flashing open to glare at him angrily. Frowning, she caught sight of the contents of her stomach still on the ground and made a rigid gesture to let the earth swallow it. A chill was just starting to creep across her skin now that it was _hers_ again, and she shivered. “You fucking arrogant -”

Her words were cut off when Tenzin pulled her into a tight embrace, both of them still sitting on the cold forest floor right outside the cave. She went rigid for a brief moment at the sudden contact before relaxing against him, dropping her forehead down onto his shoulder. Her arms were limp at her sides and she left them there, letting him hold her without effort. His body was warm against hers, filling the empty spaces left behind.

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry,” he whispered, shifting enough to press his face against the side of her head. “I was just frightened. You know how irrational I can be when I’m afraid.”

She merely grunted her response.

“I’m so relieved you’re all right. Truly, I am.” He felt the urge to kiss her hair, her cheeks, her neck, anywhere he could reach to prove just how true that was, but then he wondered if she had heard any of his confession hours earlier and decided doing so would be a very bad idea. She exhaled tiredly against him, the hot breath hitting his skin, and he realized she likely hadn’t heard a single word. “How far are we from town?” he asked, gently changing the direction of conversation.

Without moving much, she shifted one hand to press flat against the earth. “Far.”

“How are we going to get back? Walk?” The situation was becoming real again. Their ostrich horses were long gone by now – hopefully having made it back themselves – and the prospect of making that long journey on foot was daunting.

Lin extracted herself from his arms, pushing against his chest to stand and stretch. She glanced around, taking stock of where her armor and coat were when she didn’t have a proper recollection of removing them. “I can bend us back on a slab of earth,” she offered. But then she set him with a hard stare. “On the condition you massage my feet when we finally get back.”

“Of course,” he offered quickly, noticing then that her feet, still bare from their escape, were already cut and bruised. Somehow, though, her toes had avoided frostbite so far.

She pulled her armor back on piece by piece, settling her coat over her shoulders. Before pulling up a large enough wedge for them to climb onto, she paused to judge the distance again and grimaced. “Right then, add my legs, back, and shoulders to that list. This is going to be a long trip.”

xXx

“ _Spirits_ , Tenzin, that hurts!” Lin snapped, her agitated voice muffled from where she was lying face-down on the hard mattress in their dimly lit room. 

They returned to the town a little over an hour earlier, long enough for Eri – who had thankfully returned as well not long before their arrival – to fully heal the cut on her hand and for both of them to bathe the grime of the past two days from their bodies. Lin was not about to forget the promise he had made her earlier, however, and before he could get comfortable at the table, she spread out on the bed and demanded he start that massage. She would never admit it, but her body was aching after six hours straight bending them to safety. If only those ostrich horses, loyal enough to return to the farmer, had been that loyal to _them_.

Tenzin hadn’t argued, and had easily taken a seat beside her on the bed to start on her tight shoulders. He remembered from past experience never to start with her feet, no matter how badly they seemed to need the most attention. He received a broken nose the one time he tried that.

“Of course it hurts, Lin,” he murmured, “You’re not relaxing and I just hit a rather large knot that’s probably been there for years. Now truly, settle down and let me at least try to help.”

“But it fucking hurts,” she continued to complain through gritted teeth, turning her head to glare at him from the corner of her eye. “You used to be good at this!”

He ignored her frustration, understanding it was only stemming from her soreness. He rubbed his thumbs down her spine through her shirt, feeling again for the knot near her shoulder blade. He found it just as she sucked in a quick breath and pressed gently, reminding her again to relax. “I still am good,” he said quietly. “But your body is responding as if it hasn’t been touched like this in years. When was the last time you had a massage?”

She was hushed for a moment, letting out a long breath as she released the tension in her muscles where his fingers were. “Not sure. When was the last time you gave me one?”

“Surely it hasn’t been that long?” He frowned at her even though she couldn’t see him. She could still hear the expression in his voice though, and he followed with, “With the bending you do, keeping good care of your body is important.”

Lin let out a snort against her pillow at his light reprimand. “As if I would trust anyone to mess with my muscles like this. I take care of myself just fine, thanks.”

“I know you do,” he whispered. It was true, of course it was. 

The knot finally gave way and she sighed in relief as his fingers moved further down her back to stop at her waist, sliding to the left to press and knead with just enough pressure. It was difficult not to slip back into his memories of similar situations, so long ago, that always led to far different endings than this would. He remembered the feeling of her skin under his fingers instead of a shirt, or how he would lean close and follow his touches with his lips. He knew there was no way she wasn’t recalling the same nights as she fell into silence.

“What about you?” she asked suddenly.

“‘What about me’, what?”

She peered over at him again before dropping her head back down with a soft grunt when he found another knot. “You’re so uppity about me not having had a proper massage in over a decade, so when was the last time _you_ had one?”

“Oh, well, my situation is completely different from yours, Lin. Airbending is not as strenuous as Earthbending or Metalbending, you know, and -”

“Hypocrite.”

“What can I say,” Tenzin gave in with a sigh. This was a tactic to avoid any and all discussion of what had happened the previous night, and they were both willing to let it be for the moment. “Pema certainly tries every so often, though her fingers aren’t as strong as yours. I, however, have rarely had instances where my muscles got so tense from overuse I couldn’t move without pain.”

She didn’t respond. But he carried on regardless, and, little by little, the tension in her body began to free itself. Her breathing evened out after a while once he moved down her legs, and he noticed by the time he reached her precious feet that she was sound asleep, head turned to the side to face the wall and arms splayed to either side.

Tenzin stood, fetching the blanket from where it had been pushed off to the side to drape over her. He’d turn her to her side in a few minutes – Lin hated sleeping on her stomach, she always woke with a sore neck when she did – though he’d let her rest there for now, even if he’d be on that awful cot again. He found he didn’t mind much, if it meant she was safe to rest as long as she needed.

He had attempted asking her twice on their way back what, exactly, had happened. The first time she told him to leave her alone while she worked. The second time she was more honest with her answer, telling him she didn’t want to talk about it yet. He accepted that without question. She was alive, despite his mistakes. That was the most important to him just then.

A sudden knock on the door startled him away from staring at her, and he took a moment to tuck the blanket over her a bit more securely before he padded across the room the answer it.

He almost expected to see Eri there, coming to check on them, but Rala was again standing in the threshold, a small grin on his face. Tenzin took a step closer when he saw who the visitor was, pulling the door with him as if hoping to block Lin from view. “Can I help you?” he asked brusquely.

Rala raised an eyebrow, glancing over Tenzin’s shoulder to see Lin passed out inside, unresponsive to his presence. He brought his gaze back with a widening smile. “I wanted to be sure you were all right,” he said. “You and your bodyguard there. Or is she something else? I’m really not very sure.”

“We’re fine,” Tenzin said, stepping out into the hallway to close the door behind him. “We’re investigating the deaths of your friends, just as you asked us to do. You know exactly why Lin is here.”

Rala crossed his arms across his chest and took a step backward. “Everyone who knew you in your youth believes you made a mistake, that you and Lin were never meant for one another. Do you know that? So what happened? Was she too much for you?” 

The questions hit Tenzin hard and he scowled, recalling the previous night in spite of himself. It was exactly what Rala wanted to see, and he narrowed his eyes as he continued along that path to find a wider crack. 

“We – your childhood friends, you see – we never understood why she chose you. She was so powerful, even so young. But you… _you_ were only special because you were an Airbender. Is that why Beifong was so fond of you? Is that why she _left_ you?” He laughed when Tenzin’s face turned red with anger. “You are far too easy, aren’t you, Tenzin?”

He could see what Rala was doing, poking at his old misgivings just as a young bully would, and he took a breath to keep his hands still at his sides. “I think you should leave now,” he said, keeping his voice from shaking with his fury. “We’ll let you know what we have found before we leave tomorrow.”

“You’re leaving so soon?” he asked, a disappointed look coming over his face. It was difficult to tell whether it was feigned or genuine, though any act of missing his childhood companions was certainly not true. “I do hope I haven’t upset you, my friend. I only wanted to express my concerns.”

“You have no concerns,” Tenzin pointed out, already reaching behind him for the doorknob. Bringing up aged hurts was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to face, and it seemed so juvenile now.

“That is not right at all. I am _greatly_ concerned for your wellbeing.” 

Rala reached out and grabbed Tenzin’s hand, using the grasp to pull the door closed again. His strength was surprising, the childish mockery from before suddenly gone. The glint in his eyes was truly menacing now. “I know you went to Weyoun’s home, and I know what you found there. It is a miracle your lady sleeping just inside survived when no one else did. How did she?” He stepped closer, until the two men were almost toe to toe. “I’d very much like to know. How did she survive the spirit binding with her soul?”

Tenzin jerked his hand away from his grip in alarm, opening the door and backing quickly inside without another word before locking it closed.

“Lin,” he said immediately, crossing the room to shake her awake as his heart began to thud with panic, enough to send adrenaline out through his limbs. She groaned under his touch. “Lin, wake up. We need to leave. Now.”

“Din’ I jus’ fall asleep?” she slurred, woken more by the apprehension in his voice than anything else as she forced her eyes open. She slowly raised her torso from the bed with her arms, trying to get a bearing on her surroundings. “What’s going on?”

“Where’s Rala?”

“What?” She gazed at him in utter bafflement as he rushed around the room gathering their things. Few as they were, some clothes had been scattered, and he shoved them unseeingly into his bag without caring who they belonged to. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, not sure what to do.

“Rala, where is he? Right now?” he asked again, tossing their two bags toward her.

She caught one but, being taken off guard, the other fell to the floor. She didn’t question him again, instead pressing her hand to the earthen walls covered in flaking plaster. Her senses fanned out quickly, finding him nearby. “He’s downstairs,” she answered, looking up at him with confusion. “In the main room. What is going on, Tenzin?”

“We’re going out the window, then. Come on.”

He took her hand and hefted her to her feet, already shoving the table out of the way with a breeze of air. He pulled their bags along with the same and opened the window. Freezing air rushed inside.

“Tenzin, wait.” Lin took a step back from him, and he realized in his haste he was about to shove her right outside without her armor. She took the few long strides close enough to bend it on and, as she did so, he grabbed her jacket and his heavy robe, as well as the blanket from the bed. The food would have to be left behind. “I take it you’re not going to explain what we’re doing?” she asked, coming to join him again.

“Soon,” he said, tossing their bags, coats, and blanket outside. They landed two floors below on the snow-dusted ground with hardly a sound. “I’ll go first so I can catch you, all right?”

She nearly refused, but she was too exhausted to attempted bending her own way down, especially since she was still half asleep. In a pinch, sure, but if he was offering she was going to take it. She watched as he leapt from the window, using a gentle cyclone of air to ease his descent. Without a word, he looked up at her as soon as he landed. Not missing a beat, she stepped outside. There was a brief instant of freefalling and then Tenzin’s air caught her, bringing her safely – and silently – down.

They quickly put on robe and coat, gathered the bags and the blanket, and then Tenzin took Lin’s cold hand and led her down the darkest alleys they could find until they reached a spacious area to call for Oogi. 

Once again, Lin let Tenzin lift her up. The fatigue was tugging at her in all directions, and she fell back against the saddle, taking a moment to catch her breath as Tenzin got Oogi into the air. She shivered through her coat, the biting cold blowing around her without remorse. Minutes ago she had been asleep in a warm bed and now she was out in the cold sky, fleeing from something unknown.

The feeling of the blanket being tucked around her was startling, and she opened her eyes to see Tenzin kneeling beside her.

“You were right,” he said, scooting closer to huddle under the blanket, too. “Rala is somehow behind this. You were right all along, Lin.”

Rather than tell him he should have listened to her from the beginning, she sat up enough to lean her shoulders against the low rail behind her and, grunting as if she was doing so grudgingly, opened her arms so he could rest against her chest the way he had so often before. “I’m assuming he said something to you, then.”

“He did, yes.” He pulled the blanket close around them both, hoping to keep them a least a bit warmer. He could feel her trembling from the cold and exhaustion through the hard metal on her body, and he was angry with himself for putting her in this situation at all. Fear for their safety added to the mix when one of her arms wrapped protectively around his back so her hand could rest on his side. He had brought them out here, he had put them in this mess. This was his fault.

“So where, exactly, are you taking us?” she asked, her soft voice searing through his thoughts like a knife. “We don’t seem to be heading home.”

There was no anger or accusation in her tone, just curiosity, and he let out a sigh. “Back to Weyoun.”

“Back to…” she started, cutting off shortly and shifting so he had so move off of her again. He glanced up at her face, surprised to see unhidden discomfort. “Back to the place where that – that, whatever it was, jumped into my body and almost killed me? Why in the world do you want to go back there? Why didn’t you at least tell me before deciding this?”

Tenzin sat up, the cold already biting at his shoulders where she had been keeping him warm seconds ago. “I think this man holds a key to something we’re missing. Perhaps if we can get this information, we can figure everything out. We never got to speak with him before, and we should.”

Lin’s eyebrows knitted, her torn expression pained in the moonlight. She knew he was right, but that didn’t mean she was thrilled about the possibility of meeting the being that had caused her so much agony again.

“It’s a spirit.”

“What?” She frowned at Tenzin’s words, not quite understanding.

“The thing that bound itself to you that night,” he explained with difficulty, dropping her gaze. “Rala mentioned that much.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say, and so she leaned back down into the saddle to tug the blanket up again. Even that brief clarification did very little to allay her apprehension about returning. If anything, it made the situation even more confused.

Tenzin reached out to run his hand across her forehead and down her cheek, moving hair behind her ear. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe this time.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m worried about,” she muttered, turning her face away from his touch. _It’s_ you _I’m worried about,_ is what she wanted to say, but she kept the words to herself. It was overwhelmingly clear to her that Tenzin was in more danger than she was, even if the details of why were still foggy. Rala was his enemy, not hers.

While she had been in that foggy haze, the spirit fighting inside her, she had dreamed. Though ‘dream’ was certainly a loose term for the visions flitting back and forth through her mind, she recalled intense emotions welling up inside her. It had been difficult to tell whether these belonged to her or to it – fear, deep sorrow, distress. 

She had seen images of places untangle before her: The inside of Weyoun’s home, a wide field in the Spirit World, a dark space that made her so very afraid, the cave where she and Tenzin were, splashes of greens and browns and pinks – all repeating over and over, until the being was able to make sense of things itself, that her body was not dying and it had to find a way out before one of them did perish. It could feel her connection to earth through everything, and at some point near the end it sent her the design, through images, of opening herself some way to allow it exit.

But through it all, she knew something was amiss. This spirit was never supposed to be here, stuck the way it felt regardless of the cage of her body. For it _was_ stuck, and in some way Weyoun – and now Rala – was responsible. Either for better or worse, she wasn’t sure. She also was not sure how Tenzin was being pulled in to fit, but somehow he was.

Tenzin…she also recalled his voice from that night, drifting in and out of her haze, giving her something to cling to when she began to lose herself. She never heard his words, impassioned as they were, but his voice was always there every time she reached for that tether.

“Sleep, Lin,” he entreated, breaking her musings as he withdrew his hand and gave her his part of the blanket. “We probably have an hour or two before we get there. Besides, if we end up getting in some kind of scuff, I want to know you’re in tip top shape to fight beside me,” he added nonchalantly before she could retort. They both realized he was giving her an excuse, but she took it anyway.

The one thing on her mind as she dozed in the cold as they flew to their destination was, despite what happened to her, she would not let anything happen to her closest friend. She would need her strength for that fight, if one were coming at all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Minor spoilers/foreshadowing for Season 4 that can be easily overlooked. Some spoilers for Season 3 mentioned in this chapter, as well._

Compared to the trip by ground, the flight did not take long. Within two hours, Oogi was beginning his descent. The house and its spacious property opened below them as the bison landed with a resounding thud. Lin and Tenzin were still for a moment, looking toward the dwelling. It was somewhat early in the night, not yet midnight, and the lights inside were still burning cheerily. A bleached sheet had been raised over the broken door to keep the winter chill out, but otherwise everything seemed just as it had the previous evening.

“Well,” Lin grumbled with a heavy sigh, “let’s get this over with.”

Tenzin followed as she slid off Oogi’s back, leaving their belongings in the saddle. “You really made a mess of his front door, Lin, do you see this?”

She gave him a sneer over her shoulder that gave no hint of a joke. “I wasn’t exactly in full control of myself at the time. Or do you already not remember the whole ordeal?”

He was silent. Not for lack of response, but because the sheet had been pushed aside and an old man was peering at them from inside. Lin stopped so suddenly at his appearance Tenzin nearly collided with her. He came up close behind her and placed his hands on her tense shoulders, letting her know he was there for whatever happened next.

“I was hoping you would return,” Weyoun said softly, smiling at them and standing to the side to make space for them to pass once again to the interior of his home. “Please, come inside out of the cold. Can I offer you something warm to drink? I still have the kettle on the fire.”

“That would be very kind, thank you.” Tenzin dropped one hand and moved the other down to the small of Lin’s back when she remained stationary, urging her to move. She did, hesitantly taking the few steps inside.

“My name is Tenzin,” he offered in way of a habitual greeting as they followed him into a spacious kitchen on the opposite side of the house as the sitting room they had been in before. He noticed Lin craning her neck to keep that room in view as long as she could before they turned a corner. “This is Lin Beifong. We apologize for the damage we caused earlier, it truly was an accident.”

“Don’t pay it any more mind. I can have someone fix it for me in a few days once the weather lightens up.” 

Tenzin glanced at Lin, jerking his head in a way she knew meant he wanted her to propose to fix it herself in a conciliatory gesture, but she scowled back at him angrily and made no such offer. Weyoun, not noticing their silent communication, went about gathering two more ceramic cups from the wooden cabinets over the sink and measured sweet-smelling jasmine pearls into sheer cloth bags. The water was already simmering, and he brought the entire kettle over to the table for them to pour themselves.

“Forgive me not being a full host, my hands shake these days. I don’t mind so much for myself, but I would not want to make a mess of your drinks.” He motioned for them to have a seat. Once they were settled with steaming mugs, he turned to Lin and gave her another warm smile that she did not return. “A Beifong, are you? I met your mother once, when I was much younger. She stayed here with me and my family for the night as she was passing by. A true firecracker, that lady. My boys adored her.”

“Most people do,” Lin muttered, turning her hardened gaze down to her tea as she took a sip and not pressing for more details. Apparently Toph had been everywhere and she was far too used to that by now to care.

“Weyoun,” Tenzin said softly to bring the older man’s attention back to him. “Lin and I came by earlier to speak with you about some things that have been going on in the town nearby.”

He frowned and folded his aged hands on the tabletop. “Yes, of course. I assumed it was something along those lines. I so rarely get visitors these days, now that my sons are grown and my dear Vee Luo has passed.” He nodded once, a firm expression on his face. “What has that wicked man done now? As if he could cause any more destruction than he has already done.”

“Who are you talking about?” Lin asked rigidly, awareness caught again. She set her cup loudly on the table and caught eyes with Tenzin.

“The man who built the town you’re bringing news from. My mind has been foggy in recent years, I’m not able to recall his name. Tall fellow, blue eyes. I try to avoid him when I go by, truth be told. Chel, the innkeeper – he and I are friends, he offers me a room for the night so I do not have to see anyone else before I leave with what provisions I came for.” He sighed, his shoulders slouching in defeat that had been there a long time. “I wish that man had never come here.”

Before either Lin or Tenzin could ask him to explain, Weyoun turned to Lin again, his gaze concerned and openly sad. “I’m aware of what happened to you the other night, I am truly relieved to see you are all right. I was in my garden covering some early vegetables against freeze when you arrived. Ku informed me of everything as soon as I came back inside, but you were already gone. I looked for you as well I could with no luck. I’d have never forgiven myself if anyone lost their lives because of us.”

“I…” 

Lin gave up on her response, not sure what to even reply to from his statement. Instead she just slowly shook her head and looked away, confusion and stale anger making her words hesitate on her tongue. She glanced to Tenzin, hoping he’d sense her discomfort with the situation and take over.

He did, inclining his head just enough for her to notice before asking, “Can you elaborate for us, please?”

Weyoun let out a long breath, looking between them with guilt. “You are right, of course, you do deserve the full story. Do you have time? I will have to start at the beginning, you need the entire picture in order to understand.”

“We have plenty of time,” Tenzin answered politely. “Begin wherever you would like.”

“Yes, well, it started here when I was a child, you see.” 

He pursed his lips for a moment, staring down at his hands in thought. The silence stretched and, before Lin could hurry him, Tenzin slipped a hand from the table and placed it gently on her leg in an effort to help keep her calm. She clenched her jaw and sighed, forcing herself to relax again.

“Yes, when I was a child. There used to be a mining town just down the mountain, not far from here. We mined the most beautiful marble.” He smiled faintly, the memories returning. “Once, when I was a boy, I went out to play in one of the older abandoned tunnels while the adults were working. I snuck past the barriers they had up and went far down, following the tracks and tracing the earthen walls with my hands. All I had was a lantern, but I saw it as a great adventure. I wanted to be a miner myself, like my father. They were in need of Earthbenders, I had only to wait a few more years until I was sixteen to join him.”

Once again, he lapsed into silence. It extended for a few beats before he raised his head again and continued. “Well, the tunnel collapsed in on me. I used what little Earthbending skill I had at the time to keep from being crushed, but I was trapped regardless. The lantern went out. I was alone in the dark, shut in the bowels of the earth where no one even realized I had gone. I thought I was going to die there, and I surely would have if Ku had not come across me by pure chance.”

“Ku?” Lin interrupted, unable to restrain herself when the name was mentioned a second time.

“The spirit who saved me,” Weyoun explained with a faraway shine to his dark green eyes. “I was just on the edge of death, truly, when he came through the earth there. Air was gone, I hadn’t the strength to keep holding back the stone from falling on top of me. I was ready to give up – and then, there he was. He gave me just a touch of his strength, enough to lift me straight through to the surface.”

Lin and Tenzin glanced at one another, not sure where this story was going to lead to the present.

“That was that,” he said shortly, laying his hands flat on the table and spreading his fingers. “I did not see Ku again for seventy years. I became a miner, just like my father, and worked in those mines until they ran out of marble. That is why your mother was here, Miss Beifong, to see that marble. It truly was some of the most beautiful in the Earth Kingdom. I never did let my own sons play in the mineshafts, though.”

“This is all very fascinating,” Lin said slowly, trying not to sound as frustrated as she felt, “but -”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Weyoun finished for her with a small quirk of the lips. “It is not just an old man’s fancying of his younger years, though I wish it were.” His face sobered. “Several years ago, Ku came back to me. I…am not exactly sure what had happened to him, though he had been injured in some way. It was as if his very essence – his soul, I suppose it had to be – had been split in two, and only half of him was able to return. He told me a Waterbender had done some terrible ritual in an attempt to gain control over him, but it had gone wrong somehow, ending with Ku being split the way he was.

“I gave the half that came to me sanctuary here, in a piece of marble. For a while, he would bind with me – since I had been spirit touched by him so long ago, my soul did not react badly to his – but it is horribly draining. I was only able to do so long enough to garner the information to find where Ku’s other half is before I had to give up on that particular undertaking. Ku lost most of his own strength not long after. At least, the half here, with me, did.”

“Let me guess,” Lin muttered, scowling deeply. “Rala has the other half.”

“Yes,” Weyoun whispered. “You have to understand, when the halves split, they each took different parts of Ku with them. These halves are not equal, nor do they share the same qualities. The half I have is concerned for what is going on, empathetic and afraid, and rather weak. The half – Rala, is he, then? – has, is angry and dangerous and full of power. Two halves make a balanced whole, though apart they cannot exist in any kind of solitary equilibrium.”

“So,” Tenzin hedged as he digested this information, “is Rala using his half of Ku to…to _kill_ people? That is extremely excessive, don’t you think?”

“Tenzin, if he’s had this power for years, he has probably taken the lives of more people that we’re aware of,” Lin pointed out quietly, covering his hand with hers where it still rested on her leg. “But, what I’m still not sure of, is why he suddenly wanted to get you involved in this?”

“I think I may know,” Weyoun said. They both looked at him, and he took a deep breath. “You are an Airbender, am I correct? And so you have a connection to the Spirit World?”

Neither Lin nor Tenzin mentioned his daughter’s bond was far stronger than his, but Tenzin nodded slowly. He turned his hand over to thread his fingers with Lin’s, seeking her comfort as this unraveled. “Most Air Nomads do, yes.”

“I’m afraid, Master Tenzin, he may want you as host for his Ku, to give him a physical body rather than his current unstable self. One who is spiritually aware can usually stand to have a spirit bond with your soul without facing death the way any other person would.”

“Let me get this straight here,” Lin said before Tenzin could reply – though he was a bit too flabbergasted to do so, anyway. Her fingers squeezed his almost painfully in her growing rage but he didn’t pull away from her, needing the contact as she put the pieces together for them both. “Rala dragged us, dragged _Tenzin_ , out here in order to let the broken half of a spirit leech off his body for all eternity like a parasite?”

“In theory, it may be possible.”

She shook her head, glaring at her friend when he still didn’t speak. “No. Absolutely not. We’re leaving, _right now_. We’re going home and leaving this mess -”

“What if we retrieve the other half of Ku’s soul from Rala? Would the two be able to rebind with one another and repair the damage to Ku’s whole self?” Tenzin asked suddenly, focusing on Weyoun rather than Lin. He could feel her eyes burning into his face, her fury palpable.

“I have been wanting to do that for a very long time,” the other man admitted, “but I have been afraid to go anywhere near this Rala. He is very dangerous with the spirit, far more powerful than I am.”

“Tenzin, no.”

“We have to, Lin.” He turned to her, but she pulled herself away to stand from the table abruptly and put her back to him, arms crossed tightly so he couldn’t even reach for her hand again. He could only assume that her anger was brought from fear rather than him going against her wishes, but he would not be able to get her to talk openly about it until they were alone.

“I will go with you,” Weyoun suggested readily. “I can bring the other half with me, so we can let Ku rebind as soon as we find the second half. Once that has been done, Rala will not be able to do anything to regain control over him.”

Tenzin nodded in approval. “Do you know where Rala is keeping the part he has?”

“No, unfortunately. I know it is somewhere dark and closed from what I have seen, but otherwise -”

“In his home,” Lin muttered under her breath. “In some kind of small locked chest. I…saw it the other night when – well, I just saw it. The clasps are metal, I can bend them open without the key.”

“Thank you, Lin.” Tenzin wished she would release her arms so he could squeeze her fingers once more, as much for his comfort as hers at that point, but she was still standing stiffly away from her chair with no intention of returning. “Shall we make our way over there after dawn?”

The other two agreed, Lin resentfully and Weyoun with enthusiasm.

“There is one other thing,” Tenzin pointed out with some reluctance, trying to catch Lin’s eye. “Should we attempt to contact the Earth Kingdom Army? Surely they have an outpost somewhere near here. Rala is a murderer, he will have to be arrested.”

“Don’t bother,” Lin spat. “They’re useless now that their Queen is dead, spread all over accomplishing nothing. And if you even think of mentioning Kuvira to me, Tenzin, I swear -”

He held up an appeasing hand before her temper could flare any worse. “She didn’t even cross my mind. But what would you suggest, then?”

“He’s still a citizen of Republic City by birth. I’ll arrest him myself.”

Tenzin couldn’t exactly say he was surprised, and he could tell there was no talking her down now that her decision was made. She had angled her body away from him, putting the conversation to an end without any hope for it to be reopened. He felt his stomach clench with anxiety and did his best to push it away before moving on to the next hurdle of the evening.

“I do hate to impose on your hospitality,” Tenzin said to Weyoun once the tension had dispersed into the silence, “but do you possibly have space for us to stay the night? We left town in quite a hurry and have nowhere else to go.”

Weyoun smiled and braced his hands on the tabletop to stand. “Of course! My sons’ rooms are always ready for use by the weary traveler, rare though they may be. Unless you only need one?”

“Two, please,” he corrected gently. He noticed as Lin relaxed ever so slightly near the wall, her arms finally falling to her sides.

“You’ll need to light the fires, if you want them – kindling and flint are on the mantle – but otherwise both beds are made. Come,” he gestured and led them out into the hallway toward the stairs. “Right up here.”

They followed him as he hobbled up the stairs and pointed to one room, and then another beside it. “I never did get electrical lighting out here, didn’t see the point. There are oil lamps just inside for you to light. I’ll be downstairs, I usually sleep in my sitting room. Let me know if there is anything else you need.” 

They watched as he went back down the staircase, disappearing into the room where the sphere of marble was resting over the fire. Lin reached for the doorknob of the first room, opening the door to let a rush of chilly air out. The space obviously had not been used in a while.

“Well,” Tenzin said after a moment when it became clear she wasn’t going to speak first, “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

He had taken a few steps down the dark hall when she called his name, and he stopped, turning around. She hadn’t gone into her room yet, still paused on the threshold. She turned her head to look at him. “Why do you keep doing this?” she asked.

“Doing what?”

“Keep making such awful choices,” she clarified, narrowing her eyes and averting her gaze to the smooth wood under her hand.

He retraced the steps he had taken, returning to her side. She was working very hard to keep whatever she was feeling from coming to the surface, but he could still sense at least a fraction of her distress. “Would you not make the same choice, if you were in my position?” he asked, coming close and brushing her hair to the side so he could see her face. “This is a matter of protecting people who cannot protect themselves. It has nothing to do with me. You do the same thing every day as Chief of Police.”

“This is not the same, Tenzin, and you know it.” She brought her hard eyes to his again, the sudden movement making his hand gently hit her cheek. “Your life – yours, specifically – is in danger.”

“Yes,” he conceded, meeting her angry stare with his soft one.

“I understand you’re doing this to help Weyoun and the spirit and all the nameless people in the village…but can’t you just stay here tomorrow and let me take care of it?”

“You…you want to go alone? You don’t want to leave?”

She sucked in a frustrated breath through her teeth. “Of course I want to leave. But I’d rather keep you safe than watch you go through what I did, and if that means going by myself to Rala, I _will_. I can handle it just fine. Will you give me that much?”

Tenzin moved his fingers along her jaw before cupping her cheek in his hand. Her offer made his entire chest ache with adoration. “I can’t, Lin. I have to go with you, you know that.”

“I figured as much,” she mumbled, shaking her head away from his touch. “Go get some sleep, Airhead.”

He nodded, stepping away from her again when she broke his gaze completely.

But then, “Tenzin?”

“Yes?”

“There is one thing, that Weyoun said…” She paused, biting her lip for a second as she thought over her words. “About being spirit touched, and only those who have either that or a connection to the Spirit World being able to survive their souls binding with Ku.”

She let the question fade, and Tenzin raised his eyebrows. “What are you wondering about?”

“How did I survive it, then?” she asked, looking at him with wide eyes. “I’ve never had either of those things.”

Tenzin chuckled and lowered his head, rather amused by her confusion. “But you _have_ been spirit touched, Lin.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“By Korra, when she restored your bending,” he explained easily with a lopsided grin. “She used the Avatar state to do so, which connected her to the spiritual powers of the past Avatars and the Avatar Spirit itself.” Lin stared at him blankly, exhaustion making her brain sluggish. “She used spiritual energy on you.”

She dropped her gaze abruptly and pushed the door further open, obviously uncomfortable at this revelation. “Right, then. Goodnight, Tenzin.” 

“Lin -” He reached out and touched her arm lightly, halting her retreat this time. She raised her tired green eyes to his again. He did truly have a question for her, but he realized then that part of the reason he was preventing her from leaving his side all of a sudden was because he did not want to be parted from her, even by a single wall between their rooms.

“What?” Lin pressed when he fell into silence. “Or are you simply not willing to let me go to sleep? Surely you’re tired, too, numbskull.” It was a joke, though there was a sharp edge to the words brought by sheer fatigue.

“I was wondering about something myself,” he finally admitted, pushing his thoughts from seconds before into the recesses of his mind, hopefully not to return later. “So we know now Rala wants to use me as a shell for his half of Ku. Why, then, did the half here, Weyoun’s half…attach itself to you? I was standing right beside you when it happened and felt nothing.”

She heard the guilt in his question, poignant and hurting, and relaxed against the doorframe to look at him more closely through the semi-darkness of the hallway. His expression was pained enough for her to notice, but she did not reach out for him despite the twitch in her fingers that wished she would. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, searching for the correct way to phrase what she wanted to say. 

“I don’t know,” she whispered after a second without breaking his gaze. “Aren’t you supposed to be the spiritual guru here?”

Her ribbing didn’t gain a laugh and she shrugged. “When it – _he_ – was…was bound to me, I could tell how frightened and lost he was. Separated as the halves are, he wasn’t able to express to me, necessarily, what was going on, but I could still feel the panic and desperate need to get back to where he came from – which I now understand as the need to find the other half of his soul.” 

She paused for a moment, finally cutting her eyes away to a vague point over Tenzin’s shoulder, unable to focus for much longer. “With Ku split the way he is, he can’t function. All he is now, is emotion and raw power, without the guidance and grounding that comes with the whole. Perhaps…perhaps he could feel the elemental bond we share through earth and thought I could help him find that other half again. Obviously, it went awry.”

“Just a bit, yes,” Tenzin agreed softly. 

She chuckled under her breath. “We’ve really found ourselves a mess, haven’t we?” She pushed off the wall and made to go inside her room and to the bed calling her name, feeling herself falling asleep on her feet. “Goodnight, Tenzin. Seriously now.”

“Sleep well, Lin.” 

He watched as she closed the door behind her, cutting him off as she disappeared. No matter how tired he was – and he was very, _very_ tired – he had a sinking feeling he would not be able to sleep well himself without her near him that night.


	7. Chapter 7

Dawn came cold, but the sun rose in a valiant attempt to chase the constant freeze away. The clouds, which had been continuous for days unending despite breaks here or there, were fading on the horizon to give way to spacious blue sky so, perhaps, this day would pass with no more snow or rain. Lin leaned forward in Oogi’s large saddle, looking over the front to try to make out the town far ahead over Tenzin’s shoulder.

“We’re not quite there yet,” he told her as quietly as he could, her uneasiness contagious. She was ready to get this coming fight started and over with, one way or another. “Settle back, Lin, you’re going to fall.”

She pursed her lips, sending a glare to the back of his head. “I am not,” she snapped, though she leaned down on her heels anyway. 

Not wanting to engage him further, she glanced behind her to Weyoun. The old man was huddled in an overlarge coat near her side looking both excited and nervous. The marble sphere containing half of Ku’s soul was cradled in his hands. He had been too wary of stashing it in a pocket, and so had been holding it tightly for the last hour as they flew, his knuckles white with the strength of his grasp. She eyed the stone for a moment before turning around and taking a seat.

“When we get there,” she told him firmly, “you’re going to stay outside. Don’t get involved until Tenzin and I are ready for you. Got it?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod.

“I am not going to be responsible for you, too,” she muttered, eyes darting back toward Tenzin. Weyoun noticed but said nothing. When she looked back at him, he was watching her the way her officers did before a dangerous assignment. She frowned, quickly turning the expression bracing. “We’ll be fine,” she told him. “Just be ready to act when we need you. Tenzin and I have worked together like this many times, we’re going to be finished before you know it.”

Weyoun nodded again but did not respond this time. Instead he turned his gaze out to the land flying beneath them, absorbing it in silently.

Lin fell silent herself, taking a deep breath and holding it in her lungs for a moment before letting the air out slowly. She reached with her senses, feeling the metal of her armor and cables as her second skin, finding familiar comfort from them. Once they landed, she would be able to feel the earth beneath her feet as well, surrounding her, supporting her. New as this particular threat was, the specifics didn’t necessarily matter. All that mattered was fighting to the best of her ability, which she knew she would. As long as she had the smallest bit of strength left, she would be able to fight. The most important thing this time, the one thing she needed to focus on, was keeping Rala and Tenzin separated as long as possible. Easy enough.

“We’re getting close,” Tenzin called back on the wind, interrupting her thoughts. She crawled back to the front of the saddle again, able to see the town now. “Do we know which home is his?”

“That one, the big house on the hill away from the others.” Weyoun pointed it out from his spot, not wanting to move while they were flying. Lin followed his arm to see where he was showing them and conveyed the location to Tenzin, who was unable to see the other man behind him.

It did not take much longer from there. Minutes later, Oogi had landed in the street outside Rala’s home. The building was far enough away from the others that no one seemed to notice them just yet. That would likely change if – _when_ – Rala put up a struggle. Lin leapt down while Tenzin assisted Weyoun, her heart starting to beat in her chest with anticipation. Tenzin began to walk ahead as she got her bearings, but she reached out and grabbed his arm. 

“I’m going first,” she demanded, leaving no room for argument. Glancing over her shoulder once, she set Weyoun with a hard stare. “Stay here.”

She shoved past Tenzin and went up the uneven steps to the front door. Pausing for just a moment to decide her best approach, she forwent the polite knock Tenzin would have given and immediately rammed her metal-clad shoulder into the wooden door. It gave with a slight splintering at the latch in the frame, swinging to hit the interior wall. There was no light from inside, all spilling from the sun behind them to land on polished wooden floors and whitewashed walls. Everything was silent once the door stilled.

“Rala!” Lin called into the quiet house. Her voice echoed slightly, giving the impression of vast emptiness.

“Is he here?” Tenzin asked her, looking around them as they walked carefully inside.

“There’s no earth for me to check,” she replied softly, “I don’t know. Everything is crafted from wood rather than stone in this part.”

She pulled back the curtains on the windows in the entryway to let sun fill the front hallways. There was an electrical switch on the far wall, but neither went to flip it just yet. While the house felt empty and unloved, it appeared spotlessly clean. There was no dust on any of the surfaces. He had definitely been living here.

“Tenzin,” Lin whispered as she studied their surroundings without touching anything. “Doesn’t he have a wife? Where is she?”

“I don’t…I don’t know.”

They both realized as the words were said that Rala’s wife was either gone or dead, and likely had been for a long time. A creaking from above made both their heads snap up toward the ceiling. Someone was walking quietly over the floorboards on the second floor. “Found him,” Lin muttered, beckoning for Tenzin to follow behind her as she crept up the stairs.

The top landing opened into a long hallway with four rooms leading from it, two on either side. All the doors were closed. They paused, Lin standing quietly as she held her breath to listen again. _If we were on this side of the house downstairs,_ she thought, _and heard him there, he should be…_

She pointed to the room on the far left, then held her hand up to Tenzin, silently asking him to remain where he was while she opened the door. He paused, clearly torn, before nodding once, shortly. Remarkably soft considering her boots were made of metal, she edged down the hall and placed her hand on the doorknob. She knew immediately that, even if Rala was not in here, Ku was. The rush of elemental current through the brass was unmistakable.

Not wanting to wait any longer, she carefully opened the door, using it as a shield against whatever may be behind it.

A good idea, it appeared, for no sooner had it begun to move when shards of ice flew toward the opening. She pulled the door to again, letting them wedge in the wood, before shoving it open all the way to charge inside. She could handle a spirit-damned _Waterbender._

Rala, briefly surprised at her burst of attack, shrank back toward the far wall for a short moment before regathering his resolve and raising an arm. A wall of ice, brought from a small bathing trough on the floor behind him, rose with the gesture. He moved it toward her, but she spun and extended her knife, cutting through the edge before it could even scrape her armor. The ice fell but he pulled it back to himself, turning the form around into more, larger, shards. Not faltering for a second, she whipped out a cord and shattered those closest as they flew toward her. She snapped the cord around, flinging it toward him with the intention of snaring his arm, but he darted to the side at the last second to flee out an open door in corner of the room. 

“He’s running!” Lin yelled to Tenzin, who sprang into action from the hall behind her.

He used a strong gust of wind to bust open every door along the hall. They just caught a glimpse of him sprinting down a tiny hidden staircase at the back of the next room. Lin took off after him, Tenzin at her heels. She could feel Ku, likely on Rala’s person somewhere, as the spirit was dragged to and fro like an unwilling doll.

The stairs passed the first floor and went underground, into a large cellar under the house. She could smell the damp before her eyes adjusted quickly enough to see the rivulets cut directly into the dirt floor, lined with stone and filled with fresh water. As soon as she realized they were there, a wall of that water came rushing toward her. She rolled out of the way and heard Tenzin do the same. But they were surrounded by earth now, too, and she exposed her feet to find Rala in the dimness before lashing out with a cable.

The space was large, though, and he was able to knock it off course enough to evade her again. The metal did meet its mark with sufficient force to rip fabric and flesh on his waist, and the edge was stained with blood when she pulled it back.

“Stop this, Rala!” she barked, falling back into an aggressive pose. Tenzin came behind her, his own defensive. “Just let it go, okay?”

“I don’t think I want to. Not when you’ve brought me what I was waiting for.” He smiled at them, his teeth a chilling white through the murky light coming from a tiny window in the back corner. His eyes focused on Tenzin for a moment and Lin shifted, standing more in front of him, protective. “I must commend you, however,” he said with a false cheer as he took a step forward. “Your tenacity is something to be admired, I truly did not think you would figure out what was going on before it was too late. Ah, well. Perhaps it is already too late for you after all.”

With her feet pressed to the ground, Lin felt his movement in that briefest breath before it happened. She pulled the earth just as he pulled the water, and she surrounded herself and Tenzin with a shield of clay a heartbeat before a deadly slice of ice tore through the air. It hit the wall of her screen with enough force to crack, though it remained strong around them.

There was only a moment for them to look at one another, crouched together under the earthen wall, but their silent communication was instantaneous. Lin dropped the earth. Tenzin quickly spun the air around them into a forceful vortex, rushing forward with it while Lin ran behind him, cables ready to snare Rala the moment he fell.

But then she felt it. Ku.

Rala had released his half of the spirit, lifting the small chest from under his robe. The spirit, even split as he was, was huge as he emerged from his cage, inky brown and green. He was shapeless, confused and angry after being confined so long. And he saw Tenzin, began to focus on him.

Acting without thought for herself, Lin shoved Tenzin away from his line of sight and ran forward as Ku did the same. Tenzin, a pile of orange and red on the ground with his concentration broken, called out to her in sudden panic, but she ignored him with determination. 

If binding with a mere fragment of the other half had been painful, this was sheer torture. The instant she held out her hand for Ku to come to her, to leave Tenzin be, the overwhelming burst of _being_ on contact was too intense. She clenched her jaw against it, vaguely aware of Rala laughing somewhere very far away, Tenzin crying for her somewhere even further, and fell to her knees.

_I didn’t want you,_ the consuming voice thundered, far louder than the one before. There was so much anger, so much power, she could feel her body – her body that was no longer hers, just like that – quivering with it.

_Take me,_ she thought desperately, not even sure if he would hear her. _Take me. He can’t help you, I can. We’re the same element, you can use me._

_I want to kill him._

Him – Rala. Ku wanted to kill Rala, she could see the image clearly. _Fine,_ she relented without resisting. _Use me._

_You will die,_ Ku warned without sympathy, forcing her legs to stand again. She felt herself rise, could see through her own eyes without the control to do anything herself. She wanted to scream as she felt her bending being overrun, but already she could feel her will, her soul, becoming weaker. This would be over soon. Once Rala was dealt with, Tenzin would be able to rejoin the halves, he would be safe. That was all that mattered to her at that point. It was too late for anything else.

_I understand,_ she thought toward him.

_Very well._

Rala watched in amazement as Lin – Ku – stood and turned toward him. “It worked!” he cried with genuine surprise. “Look at this, Tenzin, Beifong is actually holding the spirit! It is a shame her own soul won’t survive,” he added without the vaguest hint of remorse, his eyes gleaming with gleeful cruelty as he watched her walk toward him. “Imagine what we can accomplish now. Why, we could probably take as much power as we wanted, with you by me!”

Tenzin stumbled to his feet and tripped backward, his hand out to find the wall for support. Rala paid him no attention, focused solely on his spirit. “Lin?” he whispered. If she had been there, she would have been able to hear, she would have found some way to give him a sign of her response, but she didn’t. His eyes stung with hopelessness, tears making his vision blurry. “Lin, please.”

“Oh, she’s gone,” Rala said with a careless wave of his hand. Lin’s body was standing beside him now and he reached out to touch her paling face with his fingertips. She didn’t react at all; her glassy eyes did not even blink. “Why did you not tell me this powerful bender was also spirit touched? I never would have wasted my time with _you_. Now look at this, a Beifong! Isn’t it perfect!” He chuckled then, looking over at Tenzin and smirking when he saw the fresh tear tracks down his cheeks. “It’s touching, she did it to save you from this very fate. Tsk, tsk. Love makes people do such _stupid_ things.”

Things happened very quickly.

The second Rala stopped talking, Ku raised Lin’s arms, bringing with them the entire back wall of the house to come sliding forward at an alarming rate. Rala turned at the roaring sound, but he didn’t have time to run before the rock came tumbling down on him. Not finished yet, Ku swept half of the floor up and back down onto the heap of rubble, and then pushed it down with force. He stopped suddenly, having found Lin’s proclivity for Metalbending and, as Tenzin stumbled back toward the stairs in fright, every piece of copper piping in the basement came soaring toward Lin’s outstretched hands. Ku directed them into the mass of rock and then, with a burst of choking screams, Rala was jerked up into the air, the copper pipes surrounding him as one, coiling up and around tighter and tighter.

“Lin!” Tenzin darted up behind her and tugged on one of her arms as Rala gasped for breath, clearly dying. “Lin, stop! Please, stop!” She – Ku – shoved him away with force, and he landed in a heap at the foot of the stairs.

Weyoun was standing there, startled as he took in the sight before him. “Master Tenzin -”

“The spirit!” Tenzin explained in a rush as he got to his feet again, “It’s killing him! How can I stop this?”

The old man just shook his head incoherently, still in shock. But it was no use trying. Deafening silence fell, through which Rala’s body dropped with a muted thud. Ku turned, gazing sightlessly through Lin’s eyes at the two people by the stairs. Tenzin swallowed, not sure if he could fight her even knowing it wasn’t Lin doing this. It would kill him to hurt her.

As they watched in hesitation, Lin collapsed, her eyes fluttering closed and her body crumpling to the ground beside Rala’s as her physical strength diminished like a candle’s flame being extinguished.

Tenzin was at her side in an instant, cradling her into his arms against his chest. The tears began afresh as he stared down at her ashen face. “Lin?” He ran his fingers over her forehead, cheeks, lips, hoping to elicit a response, but she wasn’t there. Her skin felt like that of a corpse, and he choked out a sob before biting the rest back. “Lin! Do something,” he pleaded of Weyoun, turning his fearful gaze to him. “Please, you have to do something.”

At just as much a loss as Tenzin, Weyoun knelt beside him and held up the marble sphere containing Ku’s other half. Using his bending, he split the sphere open. The second Ku rose from the marble just as the other had, shapeless, brown and green. He remained stationary, concerned as he watched the scene unfold. 

“I don’t…I don’t know how to get this half out of her,” Weyoun admitted worriedly. “I never thought something like this would actually _happen_!”

Moving gently, Tenzin rested Lin back on the ground. “When she removed it before,” he recalled, stroking her matted hair, “she did so by making a cut in her skin and bending the spirit out.”

“Bend him out? The entire half? I…” Weyoun stared down at Lin with wide, scared eyes. “She’s much stronger than I am, I don’t know if I can -”

“You have to try!” Tenzin snapped with more venom than he had meant as his desperation grew. “With every second that passes, the farther she gets from me – us.” He lowered his head, blinking his tears away to clear his vision and feeling the loss of her already like a hole through his very soul. “I’ll…well, I’ll cut her palm, like she did. You bend Ku out.”

Weyoun nodded curtly, not arguing anymore. Tenzin laid one of her hands out, palm upward, and picked up her other arm. It took a moment, but he found the mechanism to release the blade on her gauntlet without Metalbending. Shaking and silently begging her forgiveness, he cut her skin. Blood was slow to flow, unlike previously, and Tenzin’s stomach clenched, thinking her heart was no longer able to pump it. Before he could truly begin to worry, Weyoun fell back on his heels and pulled with his bending, putting every bit of effort he had into it.

Brown quickly overcame crimson, flowing out through the wound. Rather than dripping down this time, Ku rose like smoke to immediately begin joining with his other half. It only took seconds for him to release himself of Lin’s body and, less than a minute later, the halves of one soul twirled together, reforming into the whole.

What was once a piece unable to hold a form was now a full spirit, muddy brown and bright mossy green. Pale pink thrummed, pulsing, from his heart chakra. Beautiful in his own right.

Tenzin looked up at Ku briefly before turning his gaze back down to Lin. Her palm was no longer bleeding, and he reached out to touch her cheek again. “Lin, sweetheart?” Her skin was chilled through this time, without a hint of warmth left. Her lips were turning blue. Panic making his limbs numb and clumsy, Tenzin pressed trembling fingers to her neck. Her heart was no longer beating, having stopped once Ku – the only lifesource to sustain her by then – left. Her soul truly was gone, just as Rala had said.

“No,” Tenzin murmured in disbelief, pressing his fingers against her skin harder, as if her pulse was simply hiding from him. He took her face in his hands and turned it toward his, wanting to shake her awake, like this was merely a bad dream they would both stir from. “Lin! Lin, please. Don’t…”

It was no use. He bowed himself over her, slipping his arms under her back and shoulders to hold her body against his tightly. His weeping was quiet and excruciating, his tears falling onto the pallid skin of her neck and into her hair. Her head fell to the side limply.

“This woman means a lot to you.”

The unfamiliar gravelly voice startled him, and he raised his face in dazed confusion. It was Ku, with his regained sense of self now able to speak clearly. All Tenzin could do was stare at him dumbly. This was all too surreal, all too unbearable. Surely this was not happening. Any second now, Lin would say something acerbic, she would push him away from her and scoff at how touchy he was getting lately.

But she didn’t. Instead, she remained lifeless in his arms, her soul traded for Ku’s. _For his_ , he realized sharply, his heart aching so horrendously he thought he might die. “I love her,” he rasped to the spirit hovering over them, the admission breaking him all over again.

“Yes,” Ku agreed simply, lowering himself closer to the floor. “She cares for you, too. It was very easy to feel.” 

His blazing green eyes swept over them both and he nodded a few times, as if thinking to himself. “She did not fight me, when our souls met. She sacrificed herself to me. It was not something I was expecting, and because of her actions and her strength, I am whole again.” He paused, reaching out with a vined arm to touch her forehead. “I did not want to hurt her, either time I found her. Knowing I did so makes me very sad. I would like to bring her back. Mmm, yes, her body is accepting of this.”

“W-what?” Tenzin could only watch as a small flare of light came to life under Ku’s fingertips, on Lin’s forehead. It blazed briefly before extinguishing. He withdrew his arm. Lin herself seemed wholly unchanged. “What happened, what did you do?”

“I returned her soul,” Ku said in his low tone. “It had not yet passed on, given the chaos in which it was forced out. Give her body time to recover, however. Human bodies are quite frail sometimes, are they not, old friend?” He had turned to Weyoun, who was smiling through his own tears nearby.

Tenzin, though, was no longer paying either of them any attention. He had felt the faintest puff of breath against him. “Lin?”

Her eyes were closed and she did not respond to her name, but he laid her out on the floor again, eagerly running trembling fingers over her cheek to find her neck. A thudding pulse, which had not been there minutes ago, was beating life through her body again. Color was returning to her face, heat to her skin. He leaned over her to press his forehead to hers, cupping her cheeks as new tears of joy and relief spilled down over his face.

“Tenzin…”

He laughed, though it half turned into an elated sob. Her eyes were still closed when he opened his, and he wasn’t sure if she was answering his call from moments before or if she simply felt him nearby, but he put his thumb gently against her lips to prevent her from speaking again before she was ready. “Hush, it’s all right. You’re all right.”

She made a soft sound at the back of her throat.

“You saved us, Lin,” he murmured, his thumb tracing her lips in a way he hadn’t done in years yet could not stop himself from doing now. “You saved Ku, you helped Weyoun. You stopped Rala from harming anyone else.” He fell silent for a moment, closing his eyes again and tilting his head so his nose brushed hers. “You saved me.”

She moved slightly, holding a hand up toward his face. Her fingers only just swept across his damp cheek before they began to fall, and he quickly grasped them in his, holding them where she was trying to reach. “I’m sorry,” she breathed.

“No, Lin, no.” He shook his head quickly, raising himself slightly and turning his face into her hand to kiss her palm. It was the one he had cut, though the blood had long since stopped flowing and the wound was dry. “I should be the one begging your mercy, every day for the rest of our lives. I can only hope you’ll forgive me.”

She let out a slow breath, the air hitting Tenzin’s lips as she did. Her eyes were still closed and no more response was forthcoming. He wasn’t even sure if she had heard him, though her fingers moved slightly against his skin. He didn’t mind. She was alive, and that was all he cared about. Everything else was trivial in comparison. After another long moment simply basking in her living presence, he turned his head to glance over his shoulder.

Weyoun was sitting on the stairs, watching without trying to interfere. Rala’s twisted body was still very close by, all of a sudden a stark reminder of what had been done to cause this. Ku was hovering behind Weyoun in silence.

“We should find Eri,” Tenzin said softly to the older man. “The healer. Just in case there is something more for she can do for Lin. And Rala…” As loathe as he was to do so, he leaned back into a kneeling position, still keeping Lin’s hand encased in his. “I should at least do a ritual for him before he’s buried. We don’t need any more displeased spirits around here after this.”

Weyoun nodded his agreement and used the banister of the stairs to help himself to his feet so he could go in search of Eri. Ku hesitated for a moment before following after him.

“Tenzin…”

Lin’s hand squeezed his, and he looked back to her quickly. She was gazing up at him blearily with cheerless eyes, blinking heavily through her fatigue. Tenzin turned around fully and pressed his free hand to her warm cheek. “Welcome back.”

She gave him a fleeting smile and closed her eyes again. 

“What’s the matter?” he asked worriedly, leaning close and rubbing his thumb over her skin.

“Bodies,” she whispered hoarsely. “Under the floor.”


	8. Chapter 8

Eri arrived quickly, running down the stairs into the cellar ahead of Weyoun as he took them slowly behind her. Her eyes skimmed over the scene in shock. Late morning sunlight was streaming in through the gaping holes where Ku had used Lin’s bending to bring the walls down and, though the dust had settled, the damage was still new and stark.

“Master Tenzin!” She gathered herself quickly, picking over rubble to come to his side as hurriedly as she could.

He had taken a seated position on the floor and raised Lin into his arms. She was leaning heavily against his chest, more aware of her surroundings now than she had been a few minutes before, but neither were making any movements to stand just yet. Tenzin looked up, lifting his face from where he had nestled it against her dirty hair, and watched Eri approach. Lin ignored her.

“What happened?” she asked, breathless with astonishment as she knelt beside them and saw Rala’s body by the heap of stone. Her face paled and she swallowed, trying to concentrate. “Are you all right? Is Master Beifong -”

“She needs a bit of care, I think,” Tenzin said softly, looking down at Lin again with concern.

“I’m fine,” Lin started to argue when Eri opened her pouch of water and pulled it out, using her bending to ignite the healing properties. But she stopped disagreeing when the younger woman pressed the coolness to her face, bringing it down her neck, over her shoulder and arm, ending to find the new cut that needed to be fully closed. She moved her hands over Lin’s abdomen, checking for internal injuries and finding none. There truly wasn’t much that needed healing.

Eri brought her arms back, crossing them tightly across her stomach as she looked at Rala’s body again. The copper piping was still wrapped around him, leading to the logical conclusion that the only Metalbender among them had taken his life. “What happened?” she asked again, not meeting Lin’s eyes.

“Rala decided to dabble in things he should have left alone,” Tenzin explained succinctly. “Chief Beifong did the only thing she could do to keep us – and you, Eri, your entire town – safe.”

Lin shifted uncomfortably as they spoke and started to extract herself from his arms, trying to stand for the first time since she regained consciousness. He immediately reached out to help her, but she smacked his hands away. “I’d like to get this going, if you don’t mind,” she grumbled, balancing herself against his shoulder grudgingly.

“What’s going on now?” Eri asked, glancing between them in confusion.

Tenzin looked up at Lin, seeking her permission before saying anything else. She just shrugged listlessly and broke his gaze. He nodded and got to his feet as well, running quick hands across his robes in a useless attempt to remove loose dirt.

“Lin can feel remains under this basement. Rala hurt many people before we understood what he was doing, a very poor choice he made many years ago. We’re going to give them all a proper burial.” Eri almost seemed as if she were going to cry as his words sunk in, and Tenzin crouched again to place a hand on her shoulder. “Lin is going to bend the earth away to find as many of them as she can. If you don’t want to leave, you can have a seat by Weyoun on the stairs.”

She stood and went shakily to the stairs, dropping down by the old man. He patted her on the back and she smiled thinly at him in return.

“Hello,” Ku said softly. He had reformed himself beside Weyoun, his figure becoming larger and stronger the longer he remained whole. Eri raised a hand in greeting without paying much attention, only glancing at him after she did so. As soon as her eyes landed on the spirit she yelped, jumping off her stair toward the wall. Weyoun reached out toward her, calming her down enough to sit again.

Tenzin turned away from them, back to Lin. She had her jaw clenched as she scuffed her exposed feet across the dirt floor. “There are at least fifteen bodies here,” she muttered, trying to decide where to start. “Some are merely bone now.”

“And the others?”

She grimaced. “There is potential for some rather foul smells soon, depending on how exactly he treated them during burial. We’re going to need space for this, room to lay everything out as I pull it up.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” He stepped back and looked around. The destruction was becoming clearer as the sun rose higher in the sky. With the back wall and much of the foundation uprooted the house itself was certainly unstable by this point. They would have to keep people out for their own safety in case the structure began to collapse, which it likely would without much more effort. Most of the debris was near where they were standing, where the back wall and center base used to be. Water from Rala’s self-constructed streams was leaking out into the rest of the basement, but the area near the stairs was mostly clean and clear.

Tenzin gestured in that direction, touching Lin’s arm to get her attention. “Will that space work?”

“It’s good enough,” she consented with a nod. “I’ll try to keep the ones in the worst shape encased in rock.”

The work was slow, with only Lin to do it with Weyoun chipping in as he could, and after a little over an hour she had unearthed the remains of eighteen people. Four had decayed to bone, their bodies giving way back to the earth where they were left. The others were in various stages of decomposition, the last three nearly fully intact. Eri, through stunned tears, recognized two of the last women as visitors everyone assumed had moved on from their town weeks ago.

Including the three Lin and Tenzin were called there for, Rala had claimed the lives of twenty-one victims through his manipulation of Ku’s spirit half.

Many villagers came to help move the bodies from Rala’s home to their little cemetery outside town once they were prepared. Lin took the responsibility of carrying Rala herself, refusing Tenzin’s offer of assistance. The cemetery was lined with neat stones and prayer ribbons, tugged on their strings in the wind. Tiny bells hung from the branches of the solitary tree inside the gate, their chimes calling softy to carry the souls of the departed to their afterlife.

Lin led the small procession, finding a patch of unused ground large enough for the dead to be interred side by side. She set Rala down, and then she and Weyoun went about bending open the earth for each one. As they were ready, a body was lowered and covered respectfully. The smell of dirt was strong around them, the sound of the bells subtle, and the sun bright.

Rala was last. By then the other people had left, wanting to find consolation amongst themselves as they discussed what Tenzin had told them about the unfolded events of the morning.

Lin took a deep breath, pausing for a moment at the last grave. This one was set aside from the others, enough to give deference to his victims, and releasing the air from her lungs slowly, she and Tenzin lowered him into the ground. Childhood bully, controlling in his adult life. If she had known he would grow up to be a murderer…but there was no way to predict the future.

She stepped back and moved the earth over his body, covering him forever, as Tenzin said a quiet prayer for his soul just as he had for every other one they had buried.

“I never meant to kill him,” Lin whispered as Tenzin returned to her side.

“I know you didn’t,” he told her firmly, slipping his hand into hers and squeezing it tightly. “And you are not the one who took his life, Lin. He made his choice the moment he split Ku’s soul. Spirits cannot be controlled like that.”

She swallowed, not pulling her hand away. He threaded his fingers through hers, feeling her guilt and sorrow as his own. “I was able to see it,” she murmured, “as he died. I hadn’t…hadn’t left yet. I was screaming inside, Tenzin, even as I allowed Ku to use me that way. I saw the moment the light left his eyes because Ku would not look away. I have killed before, but never like that.”

“Lin -”

“I’m sorry I shoved you,” she interjected before he could console her. She wasn’t ready for that yet, the wounds still too fresh and raw. The admission was all she could handle for now. “Not the first time, when I was doing it to protect you from Ku, but that second time when he did it to you with my arm. That must have hurt.” 

Tenzin chuckled, following her guidance and not bringing the conversation back to where it had been. “Yes, well, seeing as it wasn’t necessarily you who threw me against the wall that second time, I suppose I can find it within myself to forgive you despite the numerous bruises.”

She smirked and bumped her shoulder into his for the imaginary jab. “Thanks, so much.”

“Let’s go.” He tugged her hand, leading her toward the gate and away from the sweetly chiming bells. Oogi was grazing nearby, Weyoun sitting on the bison’s fluffed tail as he waited patiently for them to return. They had already arranged to go back to his home, and he was more than happy to keep them for a few more days until Lin was ready to travel back to Republic City. She didn’t even complain about the extra time, testament to what she had been through even if she wasn’t bemoaning any aches or pains.

She rebuffed Tenzin’s assistance onto Oogi’s back, instead leaving him to lift Weyoun into the saddle beside her. It was only minutes later that they had taken off toward his home.

Hours, really, were all that had passed since they had left there early that morning. It felt like another lifetime to her.

xXx

As soon as Tenzin and Weyoun began to fuss over preparing something warm for lunch with growling stomachs, Lin slipped quietly from the kitchen. Neither noticed her disappearance, and she dragged herself up the stairs on aching legs. She let her hand run across the wall, mindlessly letting the house speak to her through the clay, taking it in like a part of herself. The movement of feet in the room she had just left, the scraping of chairs across tile, the running of water through metal pipes. Familiar and different at the same time, comforting.

Ever since Amon had forcefully taken her bending and Korra mercifully restored it, the energy moving through her body had felt different, in a way. Stronger, with more presence. She was able, now, to feel the currents of power as they passed along her chi, running as electricity along the pathways, through her arms and legs, fingers and toes. It was pleasant, _stirring_ – something she had not felt before it was suddenly gone and returned like life-giving air.

Bending, whether earth or metal, had always been a solace for her. It was even more so now, able to take in the motion of energy as she was. She wanted to lose herself in that motion, the energy, her _bending_ , rather than think about everything that had happened that day. Unfortunately she was far too tired, and she was sure Tenzin would realize and grow curious if she went outside to start throwing rocks around when she desired to be left in peace.

Lin noticed him coming just before Ku swooped up the stairs beside her as she neared the top landing.

“Hello,” he greeted her, gravelly voice cheerful.

She raised one hand in a halfhearted wave, not bothering to speak in return. He followed as she entered the room Weyoun had given her, looking around unenthusiastically as she thought about what to do first. She decided on removing her armor, taking it off piece by piece to let it clang to the floor. That, certainly, would get someone’s attention from downstairs, but she couldn’t bring herself to care any longer. All she wanted was to fall into bed and sleep for the next few hours. Or days.

Ku lowered himself to hover over the heap of armor, inspecting it with interest. “You wear metal,” he observed without necessarily wanting her to respond. He reached out and brushed one emerging finger across the edge of her hauberk. “How _fascinating_. Your other half does not wear metal. He wears cloth. Why does he not wear metal like you?”

“Other half?” Lin looked at the spirit wearily, wishing he would leave her be. “Do you mean Tenzin? Of course he doesn’t wear metal, he can’t bend it like I can. He’d put it on and be stuck in it forever. Though,” she added with a tired chuckle perhaps brought on by exhaustion, “that might be quite amusing to see.”

“You humans have such an odd sense of humor.”

She shrugged and sat heavily on the side of the bed to remove her boots. “What do you want?”

“I want to check on how you are feeling.” Ku landed on long, thin legs in front of her, his bright green eyes widened with concern. “Ordeals like yours are quite traumatizing to some.”

“Do I look traumatized to you?” she snapped, glaring at him without amusement. 

“I suppose not.”

“Look,” Lin irritably interrupted what she felt was about to turn into incoherent rambling. “I don’t like you. Go away.”

Ku’s inhuman face fell at her words and he frowned with his shapeless lips, truly confused. “Do not like me? Why do you not like me? I like _you_ very much. You should like me, too.”

She rolled her eyes, turning away to adjust the pillows at the top of the bed in an effort to keep herself grounded outside the situation. She wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to be alone. She didn’t want to think about this anymore. “You forced me to kill someone,” she explained simply, the statement holding anger she was trying very hard to keep tamped down. “You invaded my body and killed me in the process. Is that not enough of a reason for you?”

“I do not understand you,” Ku said, spinning once to come back around to stare at her. “You gave me permission to do those things.”

“Only because I had no other choice!” Lin yelled as she rose to her feet again, incensed despite her efforts.

“Because you wanted to save your other half.”

“Would you stop calling him that!” She clenched her fists and released her breath through her teeth, releasing her anger with it to bring the rage down to a horrible frustration that held her chest tight. “Is it only because he asked you to bring my soul back, is that why? He couldn’t stand to let me die and so you think we’re – we’re some kind of _pair_?”

Ku shook his head slowly, sensing her emotion without a true understanding of how deep it went. “He asked no such thing,” he said factually. Lin just opened her mouth and closed it again, surprised, and the spirit continued without noticing her falter. “He was far too upset, I do not think he even realized it was a possible request. No, I call him your other half because it is true. Humans,” he scoffed, touching her metal armor again. “Unable to see what is right there in front of them. Your souls are bound together, little Earthbender. They have been for a long time.”

“That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” Lin muttered, fully intending to discount the truth behind it – especially since she had known something of this for a while herself. Having it said out loud just made her more certain it should be ignored. 

“I do apologize,” Ku said, coming to hover in front of her again. “I did not wish to harm you. The half of myself that did those vicious things did not have any control, and could only see the end through destruction.”

Lin shrugged again, hearing his apology yet not ready to accept it. She knew Rala was the one who should be held accountable, who now could not with his death. But Ku had been used to take the lives of so many people at his hands, and that was not sitting well with her. It likely never would.

There was a hesitant knock at the door. Both she and the spirit turned toward it as Tenzin peered inside. He gave them a small, cautious grin. “I heard yelling,” he said, looking to Lin where she was standing near the bed. “Is everything all right?” 

She crossed her arms and angled herself away from him. “Fine. Would you leave now?” she asked Ku, “Or do you have more to rub in?”

“Rub in? What does that mean?” He cocked his head to the side, watching her with perplexity.

“Just _go_!” she barked. She pointed toward the door to give more emphasis when he hesitated.

“Farewell!” Ku raised his hand as he had seen her do with a smile before floating away, passing through the wall beside Tenzin. 

Lin sighed and took a step back to sit on the bed again. She lowered her head into her hands, not giving Tenzin her attention even as he came into the room to take Ku’s place. He sat beside her, trying to bring her awareness to him and away from her spiraling thoughts by taking one of her hands, letting his inner arm rest against hers on her leg. She turned her face slightly, enough to glance at him. 

“Are you all right?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, her upper back slumping just a bit. “How am I _supposed_ to feel right now?”

“You’re alive,” he pointed out gently. His throat was tight as he said it and the words were pinched. She squeezed his fingers in agreement, for both the statement and the sentiment. Not sure what else to do, Tenzin leaned to the side to lower his head to her shoulder. “You’re alive, Lin. That’s important.”

She pressed her head against his in return, letting out the breath she realized she’d been holding. “Yes,” she murmured. “How are you doing, Tenzin?”

“I’m frightened.”

“That’s not the answer I was expecting, now that everything is over.” She could feel the emotion through the beating of his heart, though, where their skin touched, and knew he was telling her the truth. “What’s wrong with you, Airhead?”

“You were really gone, weren’t you?” he asked, his question quiet. If he weren’t right beside her, she wouldn’t have been able to hear him. She didn’t respond and her silence was all the answer he needed. “Please don’t do that again.”

“Do what? _Die_?” She chuckled, the hilarity of the situation out of proportion with how tired she was. “Not sure I have much control over that part of my life, despite how much I control everything else. Sorry.”

Tenzin leaned away again to see her face. She turned her eyes down, uncomfortable, and he used two fingers under her chin to raise her gaze to his. “You still took that final blow for me. Again, I should add. Why did you do that? I never expected you to.”

“Don’t ask me that, Tenzin.” She covered his hand with hers and drew it away. “Just think about it for a second and you shouldn’t have to.”

“Lin -”

“You’re my friend. Did you really imagine for a second that I would ever let anyone hurt you? Please.” Ku’s words from before were still ringing in her ears, but she swallowed, pushing them to the back of her mind as irrelevant. Tenzin truly was her friend. Her heart was confused and torn in so many different directions, though that friendship would never change. Feeling the tension between them shifting as he continued to stare at her, she hurriedly added, “Look, I’d really like to lie down, so…”

“Oh! Oh, of course you would.” He reluctantly started to stand, untangling their arms and fingers. “Would you like anything? Something to drink or eat?”

She pushed him the rest of the way off the bed with her feet as she pulled them up onto the mattress, finally stretching and letting out another long sigh. “No,” she replied after a moment. “Just quiet, please. My body feels as if it ran three consecutive marathons and then swam across the Bay. I hate being this tired. Do I look that bad? Like I died and came back to life, and all that?”

“No,” he told her honestly. “You look the same as you always do.”

“Good.” She swung her arm up over her eyes. “Close my door on your way out. And please, for the love of the Avatar, keep that bloody spirit away from me.”

Tenzin took a few steps back, ready to do as she asked, before pausing and turning around again. Her breaths were deep and measured, her body relaxed on top of the blankets she hadn’t bothered pulling over herself, and she almost appeared to already be asleep. It was startling to think how hours before he had been holding her, dead, in his arms. The memory made him cold.

“Lin?”

She hummed her response without opening her eyes.

“Can I sit in here with you for a while?” he asked without shame, anticipating a negative answer and not caring as he returned to her bed and sat beside her again. He wanted to be near her while the memory of that morning was still so fresh. Truthfully, he was having a difficult time imaging being parted from her at all and he wanted to be with her for as long as he could while they were here – before they returned home. And this way, he knew, he would be able to reach out and touch her whenever he saw her lifeless face behind his closed eyes.

Lin shifted her arm away from her face, lips pulled down in a frown. “Really, Tenzin? I’m going to be dead to the world in here. Sorry, sorry,” she rushed when she saw his horrified expression, “poor choice of words. You know what I mean. But come on, do you think I’m going to die again or something if you’re not here? I hardly think this is necessary.”

“Please, Lin?”

His voice was so soft, so entreating, that she exhaled harshly and closed her eyes, understanding without him needing to say it that fearing for her safety by this point was far from his mind. All he wanted, she was certain, was simply to be with her. The revelation made her both happy and extremely sad. 

“Fine. Just be quiet.” She bent her leg and pushed him away firmly with her foot like before, intent on keeping space between them now. “And go find a chair. You’re not sleeping in this bed with me, that’s where I draw the line.”

Tenzin did as she asked, sliding the chair from the writing desk to her bedside. He reached out for her hand, and she gave it to him willingly after the briefest of pauses.


	9. Chapter 9

Lin stood still, basking in the sunlight as it streamed over her face. She could hear Tenzin speaking tenderly to Oogi not far behind her, readying him for their journey home, but for the first time since they had come to this horrible place, she was not in a rush to leave. 

As the days passed – they had stayed three longer than intended – she had slept more than she had in years. She had been able to wake on her own schedule, stretch and greet the morning, do yoga before moving into bending stances to practice with Tenzin the way they had in their youth, take lengthy runs through the forest. She felt free here, unbound by anyone else’s demands on her time or energy, and, as it grew closer to their day of departure, reality had returned. She knew she would be walking back into chaos at the station, that her detectives will have been lost without her for so long. It was nothing she was not able to handle, and she certainly would, but it made her realize how different her life was compared to the dreams she’d had as a teenager.

Weyoun and Ku emerged from the house and walked across the yard, a modest lunch held in the old man’s hands. He extended the food to Tenzin, giving him a small bow. “May the stars shine upon you,” he said kindly in way of a farewell.

“Thank you, my friend. And thank you, as well, for letting us stay with you.” Tenzin returned his bow with a smile. “You will always be welcome in Republic City if you ever decide to venture from your home.”

Lin turned and watched from where she was, far enough away to be left out of the sentimental goodbyes Tenzin always gave. She kept Ku in her line of sight when the spirit spun up in the air, twisting around Weyoun and then into the sky. Though Tenzin had attempted to run interference on her behalf, Ku had been a constant thorn in her side. While she would miss the peacefulness that had fallen over her during her recovery, she would absolutely _not_ miss him. Though she was returning to Meelo, the little devil of an Airbender. If she had to choose –

“Will you come visit?”

Ku darted down from the sky to her side, startling her enough that she almost tripped over her own foot. “Will you?” he asked again, not having noticed the growing agitation on her face. “I will miss you very much, Lin Beifong. You are my friend. Perhaps I will visit you instead. Yes, I will do that instead.”

“No, I don’t think so.” She scowled at him, eyes glancing briefly to Tenzin long enough to see he was still chatting away with no intention of ending the conversation. Meelo was definitely starting to seem like the better alternative all of a sudden. “You stay right here with Weyoun living on your mountain. Got it?” 

“But I do not like that option,” Ku pouted – at least as much as he could through his featureless face, smooth around the deep recesses of his vivid green eyes. The pink near his heart chakra burned brightly with emotion. “You are my friend now. We are bound together.”

Lin threw her head back and sighed. It was like talking to a wall. A wall that could talk back and argue without even understanding what was going on. This was a discussion they’d had at least eight times. “We,” she started slowly, “are not friends. Weyoun is your friend. Tenzin? Sure, he might be your friend. Me? No, I am not your friend.”

“You are my friend.” Ku sunk lower to the ground when she looked away, finding her gaze again. Her lips pursed. “You helped me.”

“Tenzin,” Lin interrupted loudly as she walked away from the spirit. “Can we leave now? And _you_ ,” she returned to Ku, “are staying here. Whatever bond we may have ends now. Really, thank you for bringing my soul back – but my life is already hectic enough without anything else added to it.”

“But we are both earth,” Ku tried again, swirling around her to stop her strides. 

“So is Weyoun. Stay here with him.”

“He is, yes,” he agreed with a single nod. “You are stronger. I have not met a human so strong with your element before. I want to play with the earth with you. Can we play before you go?”

She squeezed the bridge of her nose, wishing Tenzin would stop talking and get Oogi in the air already. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“We are friends.”

Lin opened her mouth to retort angrily, but Tenzin, having heard the growing commotion, came to her other side and touched her shoulder. “I think, Lin,” he whispered to her, “he wants to bend with you.”

“No.” She shook her head at them both with a frustrated frown. “Come on, we should get going.”

Tenzin grabbed her wrist before she could walk away again, an amused smile tugging at his lips. “It might appease him enough to leave you alone.”

“You just want to see what he does, you liar.” She narrowed her eyes at him. Ku hovered just behind him eagerly when he sensed her giving in. It was a losing battle, and she was on the wrong side. “You and your spiritual obsession, Tenzin, I swear…don’t know _how_ you got me involved in this…”

She jerked her hand from his loose grasp and slid back into a lazy bending stance, gesturing for Ku to move a ways away and shifting her foot a hair to forcefully move Tenzin out of her path. Ku flew backwards excitedly. Not calling out to check if he was ready, she raised her arms to bring a large chunk of rock up from the ground. She felt the power of it running through her veins, along her skin, and she grinned faintly as she used her energy to shove. The rock went sailing high into the air, toward where Ku had gone. The spirit rushed at the chunk and dove right into the center of it. She released her hold. The earth hung there in the sky, glowing with his colors of brown and green, before bursting into various shapes.

Lin took a step back, joining Tenzin to watch what happened. She couldn’t deny her curiosity.

Ku spent several minutes flowing through and around the piece she provided, changing its shape or form, giving it color, raising it high into the sky to drop it with the intention of catching it a split second later. He was like a child with a toy. Suddenly he pulled the rock in on itself, turning it into a tiny pebble, and threw the piece at Lin. She caught it, the stone now small and smooth in her hand.

“For you, dear friend,” Ku told her happily from the sky. “Goodbye.”

She inclined her head at him before finally making her way to the bison waiting patiently under the trees. For all she had endured while she’d been here over the last three days, reality was already settling back on her shoulders. The time had come to leave.

xXx

Lin sprawled herself out on her back, knees bent so her feet could press flat against the saddle and one arm thrown over her eyes to block out the late-afternoon sunshine. They had just stopped for lunch and a quick break to stretch their legs, and home was swiftly approaching. With it, of course, were all the responsibilities of her life waiting in the wings for the moment she arrived. 

She figured she should go straight to headquarters once they landed, check in and let her officers inundate her with questions, concerns, and work. But at the same time…she had left one of her best lieutenants in charge, surely he could handle one more evening shift alone before she waltzed in early the next morning. She wanted to check on her house, have a quiet dinner, make sure her thirty year old bonsai trees were still alive (even if she did sincerely trust Jinora to take care of them in her absence).

She took in a breath to sigh, though it turned into a yawn midway through just thinking about the chaotic mess she would be walking into when she returned to work. It was doubtful any progress had been made on the case with the Triads, she’d have to get that moving again as soon as possible.

“Everything all right?”

Lin shifted her arm away from her face to see Tenzin situating himself beside her, leaning against the side of the saddle, and she gave him a wry grin and dropped her arm completely.

“Just thinking about work,” she huffed. “I’m starting to wish I had brought some of the files with me to look over during the last few days when I had nothing to do. Spirits, it’s going to be a madhouse tomorrow.”

“Surely it won’t be that bad,” Tenzin soothed, amused at her sourness. 

“There’s just going to be a lot of catching up to do, that’s all.” She ran a hand up her cheek into her hair to tuck a few errant pieces back into place. “I never intended to stay away for so long. Almost a _week_! What was I thinking, agreeing to those extra days?”

“You were thinking, Lin, that you needed those days to take care of yourself.” She scoffed at him from her position on her back, not moving to make a face to go with her mocking. “You know you never would have rested if we had returned home the day after -” He cut his words short, not wanting to mention the event out loud. She raised a cynical eyebrow and he pushed on as if he hadn’t stopped. “It’s good we stayed the additional time, we both needed it.”

She waved her hand in his direction dismissively, squinting up at the wispy clouds above them. “I’d have been fine. I just know I’m going to pay for my decision in the morning when I’m buried under papers and officers.”

Silence fell around them, filled only by the wind and Oggi’s peaceful grunts as he flew.

“Did it hurt?”

Lin pulled herself up into a sitting position. The question surprised her with how sudden and intense it was, and she glanced over at him with an unusually vulnerable expression. “Did what hurt, Tenzin?”

He studied her face for a moment before looking down at his clasped hands, swallowing. “Dying,” he clarified as softly as he could over the wind around them. “The way you did. You just – you seemed like you were in pain before you…left.”

“Oh.” She averted her eyes as well. 

They had spoken in short bursts here or there during the last few days about what had happened. Tenzin, for his part, showed his emotion over the ordeal by dragging his pillows and blankets into her room to sleep on the floor beside her bed. She had woken a few times during the night, whether from unsettling dreams or restlessness that invaded her sleep, to notice he had reached up to take her hand at some point. That, his touch, had never disturbed her from slumber and it always gave her enough comfort to doze again. It also told her more than his words ever did about how troubled he was about the entire situation.

“When Ku touched me,” she explained honestly, “that hurt, very much. But my soul leaving my body once his took full control? No, that did not hurt at all. It was like – it was like letting go of a kite string when the wind becomes too strong.”

Tenzin nodded silently, turning his focus to flattening creases from the fabric over his crossed legs. Lin grinned faintly and covered his busy hand with her warm fingers to still the motion. “I may have given you the impression earlier that watching Rala die was the last thing I saw before I followed him.” He looked at her in uncertainty before she continued. “I could feel myself weakening and asked Ku to turn around. You were the last person I saw before everything faded. I wasn’t asking for you to help me or save me in that moment, I simply wanted to see you. I wanted to bring that much with me, the image of the person I-someone I cared about.

“But Tenzin,” she said firmly, noticing the tears forming in the corners of his eyes when he hurriedly glanced away and moving her hand to touch three fingertips to his cheek. The contact was feather-light though still unyielding enough to bring his gaze back to hers. “I do not blame you for anything that happened, not _one thing_. You need to let go of your guilt.”

“I don’t know if I can,” he muttered, shaking his head sadly. “If we had just left the whole thing alone -”

“Rala would have come after you in Republic City, where things would have happened quite differently and we likely wouldn’t be having this discussion because I would never have returned from the dead.” She set him with a hard stare and he blinked, breaking it. “I am always going to throw myself in the line of fire for you, Tenzin. I always have. That is my choice, and one you do not have to feel fault or responsibility for.”

“But…but why? After all these years?”

“Someone has to. You’re too busy protecting everyone else to watch your own back.” She gave him a gentle smile and withdrew her hand. “And besides, an airhead like you is bound to find yourself in trouble you’ll need saving from.”

“Lin, I – I don’t even know how to begin thanking you.”

She chortled, shrugging and leaning back again. “You don’t need to thank me. You don’t need to apologize, either – I heard that, too, by the way, and I will be remembering the “mercy for as long as you live” bit for a very long time.” She raised a playful eyebrow when the tips of his ears turned red. “I might be cashing that chip when I need a few difficult favors, fair warning.”

“You heard that?” he grumbled, rubbing a bashful hand over his bare head.

“First words I came back to. Thanks for the blackmail.” Lin started to laugh when Tenzin’s blush deepened, and she punched his knee with her fist in an effort to make him feel a bit better about her joke. It didn’t work very well.

“I was beside myself, Lin,” he tried in his defense. “I was _devastated_ , I thought I had lost you, and then you -”

“Hush, hush, I get it.” She grinned softly up at him again when he let his rambling fade off. “Ku explained – in his own strange way – how distraught you were. I’m just kidding about the blackmail, but I’ll stop. I won’t keep rubbing the salt into this one.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, and she more saw the movement of his lips than heard the words. He reached down to run his hand across her jaw until he could press his palm to her cheek.

She closed her eyes and turned her face, almost imperceptibly, into the caress. He had found every opportunity he could over their time together, even before the final clash with Rala, to touch her in some way and a part of her chest was aching, knowing this was nearly over. Another part was relieved to know her heart was almost allowed to beat normally again. They wouldn’t be able to have this kind of closeness once they returned to the city. He appeared to be aware of this, too.

“It’s going to feel a bit odd going home, don’t you think?” he asked quietly, retracting his hand and seemingly pulling in on himself.

“No,” she told him, even if it was a bit of a lie. It was what he needed to hear from her despite not what he wanted to hear. “We’re returning to our lives, as we were always going to do one way or another. I’m sure your family missed you horribly.”

He turned his distant gaze down to the land below them, which was quickly becoming familiar. “Yes. Yes, I’m sure they did.”

xXx

“Dad! Daddy’s back!”

Ikki sent the call up with air-powered lungs the moment she saw them nearing on the horizon. By the time Oogi landed in the courtyard, all three kids and Pema holding the baby were standing back, waiting patiently for Tenzin and Lin to gather their things to toss down. Meelo and Ikki dashed forward in a tussle over who got to catch their father’s bag, and it ended up spilling across the cobblestones. Lin watched with lips pulled back in a small smirk before throwing her own to land on top of it.

The moment Tenzin’s feet touched the ground, he was surrounded in grasping arms as his family came forward to embrace him.

“Daddy, daddy, Meelo broke a window!” Ikki immediately told him with gusto.

“Nuh-uh!” Meelo denied the blame, shaking his head wildly as he looked over at his sister. “You broke all the flowers in the garden with your tornado yesterday!”

“Did not!”

“Children, we’ve already discussed this,” Pema intervened calmly.

Lin ignored the growing exchange, sliding off Oogi’s back and patting his fuzzy leg affectionately in thanks for the trip. She took a deep breath, already letting go of the last few days and everything she and Tenzin had been through together, and took a step back to grab her bag from the ground. Her fingers collided with Jinora’s, who had leaned down first to pick up her bag for her. Lin pulled her hand back, surprised, and the girl passed the rucksack to her with a smile. “Thanks,” Lin muttered.

Jinora nodded, turning to match Lin’s steps when she tried to walk away. Lin paused, looking at her again. Her face was open, unguarded, and it was obvious she wanted to speak but simply didn’t know how to begin. “You okay?” Lin asked, hefting her bag higher on her shoulder.

“You seem different,” Jinora offered timidly, shifting her weight into one foot.

“Different how?” Lin asked sharply. She cut her eyes quickly to the small group still huddled together in the center of the courtyard; they were all oblivious to both this conversation and her attempted departure.

The girl shrugged shyly. Her hair was still very short, and she crossed her arms to restrain herself from reaching up for strands that weren’t there. “Changed somehow. Nothing physical!” she added quickly when Lin’s expression turned tart. “And you’re still very much yourself. I mean about…about your soul, almost. Did something happen to you?”

Lin was silent for a long moment, weighing the idea of telling this young spiritual master of the ordeal she had faced in such a short period of time. Having Tenzin, her closest friend, with her had been a lifeline, a reason to survive. But she still had questions – questions she wasn’t sure he had answers to. Jinora might. This was also, however, not exactly something she wanted to continue talking about. She still had many things to come to terms with herself before she would be able to seek the wisdom of someone else on the matter.

She gave a lopsided grin and reached out one crooked finger to tap the knuckle under Jinora’s chin. “Ask me again in a few weeks, kid.”

Jinora beamed up at her.

“Here.” Lin dug in a deep pocket of her jacket and withdrew the small marble of earth Ku had created earlier that day. She had no desire to keep it, but tossing it off Oogi’s back while they’d been flying somehow felt wrong. “Would you like this?”

“Oh!” Jinora took the pebble gingerly from her fingers and let it roll into her palm, her eyes wide with excitement. “A spirit gift! This is lovely! Where did it come from?”

“Just a little side effect of the adventure I had with your father.”

She curled her fingers tightly over the marble before throwing her arms around Lin’s waist without hesitation. “I’m glad you’re home,” she mumbled against the heavy fabric of her coat, “and I’m really happy you’re okay.”

The innocent truth of her words and the way she so honestly meant them made Lin’s eyes sting. She wrapped one arm around her slender shoulders, returning the hug as best she could. After a few beats, she began to step back. Jinora dropped her arms and stared up at her, a smile still on her face. “I’m going to head home,” Lin said softly. “I’ll see you again soon, I’m sure. Say bye to your dad for me.”

Jinora waved cheerily as she made her way toward the docks to wait for the next ferry. It was only just after five in the afternoon, there still should be at least two more before the line closed at six. Plenty of time to get home and forget about the last few days as she came back fully into her life to prepare for everything waiting for her tomorrow.

“Lin!”

She pushed the breath from her lungs and lowered her eyes as Tenzin’s voice floated toward her. He was sprinting down the path in her direction. The ferry was chugging along, nearing the dock. Just a few more seconds and she could ignore him, step on the deck and leave him behind…

“Lin, wait!” It was too late. He made his way onto the dock, nearly out of breath as he reached her side. She turned her head to glance at him from the corner of her eye, not quite willing to give him her full attention. Everything was too real, too cruel now as her world – and Tenzin’s vastly different one – pressed in around her. “Were you really going to leave with saying anything to me?” he asked, the hurt vivid in his gaze.

The ferry glided in beside them, acolytes and White Lotus guards preparing the vessel for a quick turnaround when they saw it was only Lin to board on this end. She nodded to them in acknowledgement before finally turning to Tenzin. “You just looked busy, that’s all,” she explained halfheartedly. “I wanted to go home.”

“I’ll walk with you,” he immediately offered, opening one arm in a gesture for her to board the ferry in front of him.

She opened her mouth to refuse, but he placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her forward and the words withered. Their short trip was mostly silent, and he stood as near to her as he could as they sauntered down the familiar streets of their city. It was significantly warmer here, down from the mountains on the coast, and she kept their light conversation focused solely on the weather until they finally arrived at her door.

As if knowing she was going to deny him entry, he followed behind her closely once she used her bending to open the lock and let herself inside. She narrowed her eyes at him when he almost stepped on her heel in his haste, though neither pressed the issue as she set her things down on the kitchen table and removed her coat to hang in the alcove in the entryway. Her armor needed some repair, so she would take off the pieces in her living room later to go over them with an oiled rag and her fingers.

“Would you like something to drink?” Lin offered out of habit, already moving into the kitchen to fetch herself a glass of water. 

“No, thank you,” Tenzin replied. He fell back into the foyer, watching her move as she filled a clean cup. “I suppose I just wanted to make sure that you are truly going to be all right.”

She stepped back out into the main space, leaning one shoulder against the wall and setting him with a tepid gaze as she sipped her water. “You should be asking yourself that question, Tenzin. You’ve had the last three days to be with me and reassure that mind of yours that I’m quite fine now. It’s time to let go and return to your family.”

“I know, I just…” He swallowed and glanced away, toward the living room and the large window overlooking her small garden. “When I have those dreams tonight and reach for you, you won’t be there this time.”

“Perhaps you won’t dream them,” she suggested evenly, aware of the dreams he was referring to because she’d been having very similar ones. “You’re home, things are back to normal. Right?”

He nodded, trying to believe her. “Right.”

“Right,” she repeated quietly, staring down at the glass held securely in her hand.

“I suppose I should go,” he murmured. He was having a difficult time looking at her now, and shuffled away toward the door. The urge to touch her was burning, he needed to leave before he broke the boundaries they had placed here.

“Tenzin…”

He paused, turning back around before he reached the door to meet her eyes. She was biting her lower lip, trying to choose her words carefully, and he took the few steps closer to her again when she set her glass down on the table. “That night, under the mountain when I was unconscious, I heard you talking to me. Or rather, I could hear your voice. At the time, I just assumed you were trying to give me something to hold onto so I wouldn’t die, but – it wasn’t important, was it? What you were saying?”

“You heard me?” Tenzin asked softly, his heart suddenly beating so quickly he felt a surge of nausea. He had vaguely hoped at the time she would hear him, but now he was terrified at the thought. Whether that fear was because of what his admission would lead to or because he was shameful of giving it life, he wasn’t sure – though he truly didn’t regret it, how he felt about her.

“Not the words,” Lin clarified once more, not looking at him to see the deep red that had colored his cheeks. “Just your voice. You sounded so…earnest.”

He nodded, taking in a breath and releasing it when it became clear she truly hadn’t heard. He wasn’t sure whether the clenching in his chest was relief or sadness. “No,” he answered her original question with as much a smile as he could muster. “It was not important at all.”

She could tell he wasn’t being fully honest with her, but she returned his grin nonetheless, not wanting to push the subject. “All right,” she relented easily. “I just wanted to be certain, so I could be sure I didn’t miss something serious.”

“Of course.” 

Silence fell between them. Tenzin could tell from the somber expression on her face as he gazed at her that, even if she did not know the exact words, she had a strong suspicion of what he had said to her that night. She had given him an open opportunity to admit it again without repercussion, and he had not done so. He also understood that, once he left her here, this would never be brought up in the future. He was losing the one chance he had and he may not be given another.

Acting on impulse, he reached out and cupped her face with his hands. Her skin was warm under his, and his eyebrows came together at the sensation as he wished he could do more. “You know me so well,” he whispered, both giving her a real answer and leaving it unsaid.

“Yes,” she agreed. She covered his hand with hers to stop his thumb tracing the tips of her scars, dismayed by how familiar and pleasant it felt. After a long moment, she let out a soft sigh and took a step back, out of his grasp. She squeezed his fingers before letting them drop completely. “I think I should start getting settled back in here. I have a lot to do.”

Tenzin lowered his head, half-turning toward the door and raising his arm to reach for the doorknob. He didn’t open it yet, not quite ready to leave her presence after being with her for the last few days. “I suppose I _have_ overstayed my welcome,” he teased gently. It was time for him to leave, he understood that, and opened the door to let the fresh evening air into the entryway. “Have a good night, Lin.”

She nodded, watching as he walked slowly outside. “Tenzin -” she called hesitantly, halting his retreat again.

He stopped, looking over his shoulder expectantly.

The words she wanted to say died on her tongue, and she gave him a small shrug. “If you ever need to talk about what happened out there, you know where to find me. I’m pretty sure I understand what you must be feeling about it all.”

“Thank you,” he replied, genuinely grateful for her offer even if it was something she fell back on when her original sentiment refused to come. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

This time her smile was authentic, reaching her eyes to make them sparkle. “I’m confident you will, even if you have to come up with a pathetic excuse to sneak into my office to bother me while I’m trying to work.”

“Well, I look forward to the visit in any case.”

“As you should.” She came forward to lean against the doorframe as he took the final steps outside onto her stoop. “Hey,” she began softly. When he glanced at her again, she rocked forward to put a hand on his shoulder as she raised herself on her toes enough to press her lips to the corner of his mouth. The kiss was chaste enough to be platonic, and she fell back again before he could respond. “You know you can come right up to my office, don’t you? That you don’t have to stop at the front every time?” 

Tenzin’s face was flushed and it took him a moment to absorb her question after the abrupt departure of her mouth from his. “I never wanted to overstep any boundaries,” he flustered, meeting her eyes.

“Consider them abolished. You now have my expressed permission.” She grinned slightly, the weight of the next day continuing to settle over her. “I may not be able to leave for lunch for a while, but you can always come pester me without calling first. I certainly won’t hesitate to kick you out if I’m too busy for distractions.”

“Perhaps,” he mused out loud for them both, “if you are swamped in the afternoons, I can bring lunch to you.”

“I think I would appreciate that very much,” she said, the words quiet and lined with affection.

He kept his eyes on her a moment longer, the constriction in his chest easing somewhat with the knowledge he would be seeing her again so soon – even if they were home, surrounded and separated by their divided lives here. “Shall I surprise you with what I choose, then?”

“Please. Something to look forward to.” She took a step back, reaching for the edge of the door to close it once he cleared the entry. He noticed her movement and moved away, out into the deepening evening. “Goodnight, Tenzin,” she murmured with a small wave of her fingers.

“Goodnight, Lin.”


End file.
